Soldiering on at Tiniroto

Weather damage at Mahaanui Station means owner Simon Bennett has to get around mostly on foot these days. Pictures supplied.

The farmers at Tiniroto are a hardy lot.

When the Doneraille Park Bridge (Ruakaka No.4 Bridge) was washed away in Cyclone Gabrielle, nurse Sally Officer kayaked across the river to ensure she made it to Gisborne Hospital for work, but after the late June weather event, even that is off the table and with the precarious Tiniroto Bluffs closing the road, things just got a whole lot harder.

But this isn’t a community that sits back and complains. During Cyclone Gabrielle, when the power was out and well-stocked freezers started defrosting, everyone gathered at the Tiniroto Community Hall for big, shared meals.

“It was great as it really did bring a lot of people together. I met people I had never met before,” says Sally. “Most could get to the hall and we would all get together there. This is what a real community looks like.”

They all gathered again after Gabrielle and formed the Tiniroto Community Hub which has since been raising funds for a hall upgrade and a raft of local projects.

The flow-on from that has been a ladies’ pamper day and a sausage-making night for the blokes.

“Everyone is just trying to get on with things.”

Sally and husband Simon Bennett farm the 600-hectare Mahaanui Station on the Ruakaka Road. It translates to lots of joy and happiness and is where Simon grew up. The couple bought it 28 years ago and were in the throes of succession planning when the effects of the recent weather events sank in.

“It has removed some of our options,” says Sally. “Overnight our lives completely changed. It has been quite incredible.”

Simon was on Mahaanui when Bola hit and he says Gabrielle pushed the water another two metres higher. “We know the  river level reading equipment went out at 9.5m and there were metre-high waves in the river.

Missing in the torrential water is a 42-seater bus and a big container. “How can things that big just disappear?”

Mahaanui is medium to steep hill country. Sally and Simon breed Hereford Angus cross cattle and Romney sheep.

Now, water still sits where it never has before. Hills are slumped. Tracks are gone and none of their small farm bridges are left. It is a bit of its own ecosystem up there – March 2022 they had 960mm of rain over five days and it charged through the farm leaving plenty of damage behind.

Only once in living memory for Simon has water been across the road.

“We just have no proper access – Bushy Knoll Bridge is gone and so is Doneraille. Emergency work was being done on the Mossman Bridge on Ruakaka Road but the repairs have failed again.”

They’ve been walking over slips and taking a Polaris to get to where they need. The locals built a ford over the river behind the Mossman Bridge for stock to get out, but for Sally and Simon that means a 12 kilometre walk with the animals. They are hopeful they won’t have to sell some of their capital stock, but if things stay the same and feed or fertiliser can’t get in, that may be the only option.

Four farms on their side are doing the same and loading at Ruakaka Station, another kilometre over the ford.

“A lot has slipped again after this year’s storms.” Strangely though, some of the neighbours received little damage.

They have flood insurance but that only covers so much. Now they patiently wait for spring and summer when it will hopefully be dry enough to open their tracks if they can get a digger in.

“Simon is incredibly positive and always says it could be worse. He just gets on with it, but it really is pretty average out there for so many people.”

But perhaps more importantly Mahaanui is one of a number of farms that are cut off. Their trips to town have doubled in time taken, so instead of a 50-minute run to town, it takes nearly two hours and they run the gauntlet of forestry crews and trucks on the Parakanapa Road. “It’s certainly not for the faint-hearted. Our whole community has been re-routed there — it is a bypass road and not designed for this much traffic.”

Some prefer to go via Wairoa instead, adding more hours of travel. There are even some who would rather take their chances  under the bluffs.

It’s not just getting to town. Plenty of services can’t or won’t visit parts of the rural Tiniroto community to deliver items like fertiliser and stock feed. Utility companies don’t like to visit.  Getting stock in and out is a mission, with animals facing a long walk to meet a truck at the closest point.

Sally and Simon’s farmstay business has practically ground to a halt bar a few hardy guests with 4x4s. Bookings have reduced or been cancelled while the roads are as they are.

But they, along with others in the community, have heaped praise on the efforts by Fulton Hogan and BBL Contractors in doing what they could to help, clearing silt and patching the roads. “The contractors have been amazing doing what they can . . . and then re-doing it sometimes.”

The mid-June event halted Sally’s kayak crossings. “Since then the river has been so high and full of debris . . . it is just dangerous. I have been down a lot to look at it and just thought ‘no’.”

Now more than ever she wants a flying fox cage. “That will mean we will at least have easier access.”

While there are promises the Doneraille Park Bridge will be fixed, no one is brave enough to give a date.

“We are a resilient community,” says Sally. “A real farming community who just get on with it, but it is frustrating and yes, we do feel a bit forgotten sometimes.”

It is a long way from where Sally grew up in Auckland city. “I have definitely had to adjust, and it took a few years. I hadn’t planned to live in the middle of nowhere. It is lovely out here but the challenges just keep coming. One minute you are cruising and the next every single thing is a challenge.”

But they get back up and get on with things, supporting their neighbours where they can, each checking in on the other, and remembering how good it is to be out there when the going is good.