A first-time fleer of Wairoa flooding: ‘Mother Nature has won’

Long-time fisher Alan Jane has fished the Wairoa River and the coastline all his life.

Living in Lion St just off Kopu Rd, he is philosophical about last week’s flooding.

“We were all caught short.

“It was the weather that did the job, that torrential rain.

“A lot of people are saying they [Hawke’s Bay Regional Council] should have had the bar cut, but Mother Nature had taken over.

“There are a lot of people who have gone through this around New Zealand’s coastline and we got one.”

The water on Wednesday morning rose around him, but not from the river.

“The culverts could not work with the river flowing. We had to get out.

“In just a quarter of an hour, I could see the tarseal of the road and then it was up to the running boards and we got out of here.”

The flood ruined two freezers in the garage.

Slash from Cyclone Gabrielle that was remobilised on Kopu Rd during flooding in Wairoa on Wednesday. Photo / Ann Revington

“We will put the rubbish out when we have finished cleaning. We have plenty of time.

“It will be a while before we can fish again, at least a fortnight with all this mud.

“I washed a hell of a lot of it out of the garage - now we have to start the rest of the clean-up.

“From here to Portland Island and around to Napier, you are not going to do any rod fishing.

“We would have been here in Lion Street, definitely for fifty years, and we have never had had that water come down here.

“During Bola, it came level with the road. This is the first time we have had to get out of the house.

“I could mow the lawns with Gabrielle last year. We just have to fight the battle and carry on. Mother Nature has won this one.”

Gail and Robert Campbell live at Kopu Road towards Spooners Point and wish there were solutions to prevent events like Wairoa saw on Wednesday. Photo / Ann Revington

At the other end of Kopu Rd towards Spooners Point, Gail and Robert Campbell said they wished there had been some well-resourced river management in the lead-up to the weather event.

Campbell is another fisher who remembers the river flowing deep and green when he and Gail were growing up in Wairoa.

With whakapapa to Taihoa Marae, the couple are Ngati Kahungunu ki te Wairoa and Ngati Porou. He said his nanny used to feed whitebait to her chickens.

“The river has not had any management that we can see - do we have the expertise?”

Growing up he remembers Karaka St having issues with flooding and North Clyde and Waihirere Rd.

They had heard Kitchener St residents observe the drains getting wider, but not deeper.

“The shallowness is noticeable now and the bar did not move about so much in the 70s and 80s.

“There was more whitebait, and kahawai.

“Everyone used to fish, almost all year.

“Food was not an issue in those days and families were ten times bigger.

“The river was part of our staple, if you had too much, you just drove around and gave it to family, friends, strangers. We all did it, Pākehā and Māori.

“Things have changed so much.”

The Campbells said they had wondered about dredging the river regularly, which would bring jobs, but felt that also raised a question of where all the mud would go.

“If you dump it by the river, it will go back in with the next flood.

“Maybe council land they have lost through the flooding?

“To stabilise this, that would need money for plants.

“The erosion and run-off from the land goes into the river and sea.”

Both agree that they would like to see more fish in the river and the old channel or trench return.

“There are amazing engineers and scientists. Some of them may want to share that expertise. We should consult with them.”