The aftermath of cyclone Gabrielle from above in Hawke's Bay. Video / Hastings District Council, Matt O'Kane
The wedding of Matthew and Dinah Ifopo in Hastings was more than your average celebration – it was also a celebration of survival.
With January 20, 2024, locked in as the wedding day Dinah thought she was never going to make it, that she would die as she waited several hours on the roof of their home, broken leg and all, as the floods from Cyclone Gabrielle swept through the Pakōwhai area 11 months ago.
The couple and her 20-year-old son lost everything, but, rescued by helicopter, they were able to have their their day, originally scheduled for their garden but celebrated only a few kilometres away at Bareknuckle BBQ in Pakowhai Rd, Hastings on Saturday.
It was the end, or more accurately a new beginning, of a story that already had a “fairytale” long before it became a fairytale.
It was about nine years ago that Dinah, 46, first set eyes on her future beau, now 48, when she was out for lunch with friends, their first chat sparked by her cheeky reference to someone’s “butt”.
As he walked past, he asked, equally did she like his “butt”, and somehow they had a chat, but, with events in life not so opportune as to strike up much of a relationship, that was that.
It was about five years later that she spotted his face on Facebook and messaged him asking if he remembered her. He did, and told her he’d been trying to find her ever since.
Dinah and Matthew Ifopo at their wedding at Bareknuckle BBQ in Hastings on Saturday. Photo / Paul Taylor
It was all-on in very short time and he ultimately moved to Hawke’s Bay, where she teaches at a Flaxmere primary school and also cares for her now 20-year-old son, while Matthew works as a truck driver.
It all led to a “very emotional” day, with yet another touch as, before a gathering of about 80 family and friends, from as far afield as Whangarei and Christchurch, it was her son who gave her war away, stepping in after the recent passing of her dad.
On Monday, as a hint of rain in the Bay sent a moment of traumatic shiver down the spine, she spoke of the day their lives changed more than anyone could have imagined on February 14 last year, when but for a hint of a couple of reception “bars” on the cellphone she doubts she’d be around to tell the tale.
It was in the afternoon, and she’d been waiting for rescue for at least four hours, her leg broken with a clear “snap” as her now-husband tried to help her up to the roof from where she could see the floodwaters taking almost everything in their path, rising “unbelievably” to the ceiling, as they were to realise when they return a few days later to see if there was anything worth salvaging.
She says her leg must have been in pain – she’d heard it, and it was swelling – but adrenalin had taken over. Through the mist she could hear the helicopters, but believed no one knew about the flooded little pocket between Chesterhope Bridge and the Pakowhai Store, until she spotted those “bars” of reception and hit 111.
Earlier they’d noticed the water across the road in the morning, and watched as it started making its way up their own driveway, so quickly they could not get out – even the car had gone.
“No one knows where the water came from,” she says.
By night-time, she’d been flown to safety, taken to hospital, the leg, broken in two places, was in a cast, and they were “homeless,” but for the help that started coming immediately, including somewhere to stay.
While the memories are there daily, it was time to get back to normality when she returned to work about five weeks after the cyclone, although reflection says perhaps that was too soon.
Thus to Saturday, with a wedding planned to also help support business and services themselves hit by the disaster, it was the “perfect” way to turn another corner, even if it was “a bit hot”.
Now living in a house near the Maraenui Golf Course, she says: “I feel blessed every day. We live every day to the fullest. It was a celebration that we’ve overcome the tragedy.”
Doug Laing is a senior reporter based in Napier with Hawke’s Bay Today, and has 50 years of journalism experience in news gathering, including breaking news, sports, local events, issues, and personalities.
