Torrential rain falls once again

CRAFTY SOLUTION: Turi Pou uses a boat to pick up his niece Summer Pomana. PHOTO/PETER DE GRAAF

Many Far Northerners will be hoping that spring, which officially began yesterday, brings a change in the weather.

The last three days of winter brought more torrential rain, particularly in the east from Kaeo south, resulting in more road closures and more flooding (destroying many farmers' re-sowing of pasture following the July storm).

According to the Northland Regional Council, 188mm of rain fell on Kaeo's eastern hills in the 30 hours from midnight Friday to 6am Sunday, just short of the 196mm that would usually fall in the entire month of August. The same period saw 122.5mm recorded in Kerikeri, 86.5mm at Ohaeawai, 79.4mm in Kaikohe and 70mm at Otiria. Kaitaia received just 23.3mm in the three days to 9am yesterday.

A familiar scene unfolded at Kaeo on Sunday, State Highway 10 north of the town becoming impassable to all but trucks and larger four-wheel-drives. Northland Civil Defence was on full alert before the 11am high tide, driven by strong easterly winds, but by mid-afternoon the big concern was the Kaeo River.

By late afternoon it was clear that Kaeo was going to be spared the flooding that has historically plagued the town, however. At midday Tewlon Kingston, from the Kaeo service station, said the town was "sweet", the biggest flood he had had to deal with being phone calls from people inquiring about local roads.

The township itself was still dry by late Sunday afternoon, apart from the odd patch of surface flooding, but the same could not be said for Omaunu Road, which links central Kaeo with the hospital and houses on the other side of the river. It was closed at high tide on Saturday night, and was still under more than a metre of water in places on Sunday.

Locals either hunkered down at home or swapped their cars for boats.

Turi Pou was using a dinghy with an outboard motor to shuttle family members across what was usually farm land, and on Sunday he used it to deliver groceries and collect his niece, Summer Pomana, tying up at a bridge railing between trips.

They were unfazed by the flood, a regular occurrence on Omaunu Road, and were actually enjoying boating, Ms Pomana, who now lives in Tauranga, saying it brought back childhood memories of swimming into town.