Driving across the bridge into Edgecumbe it was a shock to see the road ahead disappear, swallowed up by murky water.
I knew it was coming, but it still took me by surprise. Just moments earlier we'd been waiting behind a row of cones and security guards, beneath a clear sky with no sign of the flooding.
Rotorua Daily Post photographer Stephen Parker and I were part of a media group taken beyond the cordon today as Prime Minister Bill English made his visit to the town.
Police tape, which had been broken during the evacuation, hung from a lamp post, and rubbish which had floated into the streets lined the gutters.
The entire road was carpeted in mud and silt, and a lone boat was left moored on the footpath.