Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty surveyed devastated rural areas in the Tararua and Central Hawke's Bay districts today. Video / Mark Mitchell
Among the broken furniture and inedible cereal of their mud-soaked Fernhill home, the Smith family heard a noise coming from the bedroom.
It’s here that this flooding fairytale gets mixed up somewhat.
Because as Michael Smith opened the door with trepidation on Wednesday he found not Goldilocks, but this little piggy lying in the bed.
The rising water that swept through Korokipo Rd was terrifying, and the Smith family’s experience of it was awful.
Michael punched his way out of the shed of the family’s property to get him and his wife Stacey, brother Jake, and their three children Bella, William and Samuel, to the safety of the roof.
Lucky the pig has a rest on a mattress in the Smiths' flooded home in Fernhill. Photo / Michael Smith
A nearby creek was rising and flooding them from the left, when suddenly water also started pouring onto the property from the right as well. That was unexpected.
They had the ute packed and ready to go, presuming the creek was the threat to watch out for. But when the two waters (left and right) started meeting, they didn’t know which way they’d be able to drive to safety.
Stacey said they were trapped on the roof until a helicopter pilot picked them up at 1.30pm on Tuesday.
Through it all, Stacey says, their sense of humour remained intact, even if their home wasn’t. And when they found the pig on return to the house, it was the laugh they all needed.
“There’s plenty of good things to find among this s***storm too,” she told Hawke’s Bay Today after the family spent Saturday cleaning up.
“The pig, he’s not ours, but he keeps hanging out. He’s been such a light reprieve for us. The kids love him, he’s been really entertaining for them.”
Cyclone Gabrielle flooding has destroyed orchards on Korokipo Rd, near to the Smiths' property. Photo / Paul Taylor
Stacey says the pig is almost certainly their uncle’s from a house down the street.
For now they’ve named him Lucky, and they’ll eventually return him when it’s possible to do so.
All homes on the street, which connects both of the breached Ngaruroro and Tutaekuri Rivers, are damaged in some way, many ruined.
Stacey says the spirit that they’ve experienced over the past few days has been extraordinary - friends, neighbours and strangers turning up to help clean, offering donations, finding ways to get them through.
“It’s been incredible, it just shows the strength of the community out here. And we’re all pretty positive too - things are hard and there are some awful stories, but we’re all still able to come together and have a laugh.”
So back to the pig. Why did Lucky choose the bed does she think? No porkies, please.
