More than 10,000 people have been displaced up and down the North Island in the wake of what's been dubbed the "storm of the century". Video / NZ Herald / Supplied
Niki Bray stands on the Piha cliffs where her family home stood for 70 years, staring at an unrecognisable pile of rubble, and with an ironic smile says, “I don’t know if we’ll be able to put it back together.”
The joke gets a good laugh from the group of friends and locals who’ve put in eight-hour days sifting through the remnants of the Brays’ life after Cyclone Gabrielle decimated everything tangible in it on Monday.
For someone who avoided death in her utterly flattened timber-clad home by a mere two hours, Bray’s hardy attitude is not uncommon across the entire Auckland west coast town of Piha.
Large and small slips abound on almost every street as locals help their neighbours clean up. The coastline street of Marine Parade has more than a dozen homes still submerged in water that will not drain.
But the Brays still came off the worst on Monday night.
Niki Bray's Piha Beach home that was completely destroyed during Cyclone Gabrielle. 15 February 2023 New Zealand Herald photograph by Dean Purcell.
Niki Bray's Piha Beach home that was completely destroyed during Cyclone Gabrielle. Photo / Dean Purcell
Around 9pm on Monday, Niki Bray, 53, and her husband Michael, 51, were hunkered in a “pretty scared” state and packed to leave, as their property on Rayner Rd had torrential rain churning down from further up the cliff where the Piha lookout sits.
“Around nine we heard a little noise and then we gapped it. We were in it [the house], but we heard something and we went out and had a look at the front door and there was a bit of mud,” Niki Bray says.
“My husband scraped a bit of stuff away and then he looked and said ‘OK let’s leave’. His mother and father live around the corner.”
As they left they grabbed their 22-year-old cat Nellie and chucked her in a backpack.
Two hours later, around 11pm, a neighbour called Bray to say “your house is in the middle of the street”.
The Piha local of 30 years thought they might have been exaggerating.
“Well, I thought, let’s just calmly pop along and have a quick look, maybe it’s just the garage or maybe they didn’t see it right. But no, it was literally my house in the middle of the street, on its side.”
On a sunny humid day, 36 hours after her house was destroyed, Bray says she’s not sure what the next step is.
A dozen locals, Auckland Council workers and staff from Brinkley Developments - who Bray says “have been amazing” - attempt to retrieve what belongings they can from the mass of sludgy earth.
A digger also tries to clear the dead-end street of Rayner Rd from the rubble which still blocks access from the Brays’ property onwards.
Niki Bray is given a jacket recovered from her Piha Beach home that was completely destroyed during Cyclone Gabrielle. Photo / Dean Purcell
Emergency services at Niki Bray's Piha Beach home. Photo / Dean Purcell
The roof of their house leans at a 45-degree angle against a power pole. A line of work utes and trucks line the narrow street.
Niki’s husband Michael has lived in Piha his entire life - 51 years. They are insured but today Niki Bray was totally unsure if she would be willing to build again on this plot of land after such devastation.
“It was a rare storm. We’ve seen a lot of storms and we’ve never even considered evacuating,” Bray said.
When asked if she would be willing to take a photo in front of what used to be her house, Bray laughs and says “would you like me to cry too? I can probably do that if I just go and have a look at something over there”.
The couple will be staying at Michael’s parents’ home just down the road for at least the coming days.
Above all though, Bray says the disaster - which saw the death of a volunteer firefighter in the neighbouring west coast settlement of Muriwai - just shows the resilience and strength of the Piha community.
“Obviously it’s a sad time and stuff but yesterday it was just amazing, everyone pitching in and helping and people, they’re probably a bit scared about their places, but they spent eight hours here digging our stuff out. We got... bits and pieces of things that we wanted. Obviously there’s a whole lot that we didn’t get,” Bray says.
“Yesterday I was so stoked because there was so many people [helping] and we were just quite humbled by people just giving us their time. It’s an amazing community.”
And then another remnant of the Brays’ life emerges from the rubble. Michael’s leather jacket is handed to Niki, drenched in mud.
Asked if she thinks it’ll be salvageable, she smiles widely and says: “yeah”.
‘We’re lucky to be alive’ - Karekare mum trapped with daughter
Cassandra Robson, 33, was trapped in her Karekare home alone with her six-year-old daughter Skyla since slips on Lone Kauri Road completely cut off access on Monday night.
Robson was left without power for 24 hours.
‘It was traumatic. We’ve got big trees that can fall down,” she said of the conditions as Cyclone Gabriellle hit on Monday night.
Cassandra Robson, 33 with her daughter Skyla age 6 at Piha Beach. They were rescued from Karekare Beach during Cyclone Gabrielle. 15 February 2023 New Zealand Herald photograph by Dean Purcell.
The journey out of Karekare on Tuesday night, to arrive in Piha around 9.30pm, was equally daunting.
“We were luckily taken back with them through Karekare. We had to go in a tiny little car with a cat, my daughter and two guys, and they happened to use a tiny little car and we came to the point where we had to get out of the car because it was that dangerous that the cliff was going to fall on top of the car while we were in it.
One of the men in the car had a chainsaw he was getting out of the car at certain points to cut branches and debris in their path on the road.
“It was so scary. The road was literally barely meters wide,” Robson said.
“We’re lucky to be alive and there are people worse off than we are. We’re just grateful and thankful for an incredible community as well coming to look for us and make sure we’re safe, and now let’s do the same for other people.”
A number of properties along Marine Parade in Piha have been red stickered after they were damaged by a big slip and flooding during Cyclone Gabrielle. 15 February 2023 New Zealand Herald photograph by Dean Purcell.
