Tokomaru Bay locals would not let a mere detail like a washed-out bridge get in the way of them sharing some beers with their mates.
A video circulating on social media shows locals of the small community on the East Coast using rope and a bucket to pass bottles of beer across from one side of the impassable bridge to the other.
The bridge out of Tokomaru Bay collapsed due to heavy rainfall earlier this week, leaving a gap of more than 2 metres and cutting off that chunk of the East Coast.
Despite the destruction caused by the weather, one thing is clear from this video: East Coast people remain in good spirits.
"Anything for beers," the caption for the video states. The clip has been viewed more than 119,000 times on TikTok in just one day, and has also been shared widely on Facebook where people commended the East Coasters "can do" attitude, with many describing it as "Kiwi ingenuity at its finest".
"Classic coastys and the steinys," one person commented.
"When there's a will, there's a way," someone else said.
"So kiwi. Nothing stops nothing. We just adapt and problem solve. Brilliant problem solving guys," another TikTok user wrote.
Heavy rainfall led to the collapse of the bride out of Tokomaru Bay earlier this week, with the wild weather causing chaos and extensive damage to the town and the whole East Coast and Hawke's Bay regions.
A section of the bridge in Tokomaru Bay has been wiped out by floodwater, bisecting the town alongside State Highway 35. Photo / Angus Dreaver, RNZ
For Tokomaru Bay, this is the second severe flood in less than a year.
The East Coast was the hardest hit by the storm that has lashed parts of the North Island this week; with hundreds of residents isolated by a succession of road closures, power outages continuing on Saturday morning, and at least one house being completely washed away by a swollen river.
