'Months' before Nelson Tasman comes back to normal

It was when the mud started to come into their home that they knew they needed to leave.

Trevor, 72, and Val A'Court, 63, have lived in their Riwaka home north of Nelson for over ten years. But they've never seen anything like the damage wreaked by Cyclone Gita.

First the orchard next door started to flood, then the creek behind their house started to rise.

Finally, it burst its banks with a power that swept away the bridge, and sent mud and silt through their garden and into their home.

"As we watched, huge logs were coming through and hitting the bridge, and literally shaking it and moving it quite a distance," Trevor said.

"So we came back down and preparing for whatever, and just hoping it wouldn't come into the house.

"But just at that time, the rain got considerably heavier than it had been, and all of a sudden everything just rose up.

"It was literally a matter of probably 20 minutes. We were looking ok, and then it started to come in the house.

"I looked out the window at the road in front of the house, and it was just a river, of about 1.3 metres deep, just going, going, going.

"Big logs were hitting the side of our house, and for a while I thought 'oh dear, the house is going to come off the piles'."

Ex-Cyclone Gita damage in Marahau, Nelson. Photo / Tim Cuff

The power of the floodwater has left pine logs and entire trees piled up around the Nelson Tasman region, ripped from the ground and left piled against homes, bridges, and across roads.

Multiple major slips can be seen on the surrounding hills, including several slips blocking the Takaka Hill Road.

It's expected to be several days until that route is cleared for a single lane. Golden Bay residents are cut off until then.

Val A'Court said that by the time they knew they needed to evacuate from Gita's fury, it wasn't safe for them to go outside anymore.

But the water was already creeping into their home.

"This was a river [on the road in front and behind their house]. We could not get out of the section then.

"So we just had to wait for the fire brigade to come and get us.

"By the time they came it was starting to go down, but we couldn't stay because the house was flooded anyway.

"It was quite scary, we just thought 'what do we do'?"

Trevor said he couldn't sleep all night, tormented by the damage he knew would they would return to.

When they came back in the morning they saw mud a foot thick blanketing the prized garden, and mud an inch high through the house. Even their front gate had been swept away.

A hug for Val A'Court from friend Monika Walter as Val starts the clean-up of her silt-covered property. Photo / Tim Cuff

The community quickly rallied around, taking turns visiting each others' homes to scrape away mud, hose down walls, and pile muddy furniture outside.

Despite that, Val and Trevor said they "couldn't imagine" how long it will take to get their house back to normal. They fear it will be months.

"This is a job for mechanical tools. It's not a job for pick and shovel, it's a job for bulldozers and scrapers," Trevor said.

"Then after that we've got to put it back together again.

"So months, I think."

A state of emergency is still in place across Nelson Tasman, and locals are warned not to go swimming because of sewage overflows thanks to power cuts.

NZTA is working on clearing Takaka Hill Road so that residents of Golden Bay can travel the road again.

Although that's expected to take several days, Golden Bay locals are being warned not to panic buy food or petrol, and supplies are being transported to them by ship.

Water supplies at Dovedale aren't operational, so residents there need to rely on stored water.