Northland family lose dad then Cyclone Gabrielle destroys home

Eric Zinsli Raharuhi was the go to man for knowledge of Karikari, Maitai Bay and Waikato Bay, his family says.

A family is fundraising after losing their dad - a dedicated former volunteer firefighter - and their home in separate events on the same weekend.

Rhonda Raharuhi’s father-in-law Eric Zinsli Raharuhi was rushed to Whāngarei Hospital from the Far North on February 10.

“I got a phone call at 4 o’clock in the morning that we needed to go down... he’d gone downhill,” Raharuhi said.

While in the hospital, Eric passed away in the early hours of the morning on February 11.

Raharuhi said he was well respected in his community and had spent many years as a rural firefighter in Northland.

Eric and his partner Hine Raharuhi had dedicated 15 years of service to the Karikari Rural Fire Brigade from 1989 to 2004.

Son Joshua and Rhonda Raharuhi’s partner has followed in his parents’ footsteps and so far clocked up 10 years as a Karikari volunteer firefighter, currently serving alongside Eric’s grandson Jade.

“He was very well loved by all his grandchildren, so richly,” Raharuhi said.

Eric’s mokopuna and whānau lovingly dubbed him “Paka”.

Raharuhi said the rumblings of Cyclone Gabrielle’s beginning were felt as the family returned Eric to his homestead near Maitai Bay.

“We were thankful we got him home because the weather was already starting to turn.”

While the whānau mourned the day after they lost the man they called their “Chief” the cyclone ripped through the bay.

As Gabrielle barreled through, it ripped the roof straight off the home of Hine and Eric.

Whānau staying on the land in a different property rushed down to the house.

“It was pretty chaotic because all the ceiling was all Gib and had all crumbled in so that’s why there was so much damage to walls and floors and furniture and everything,” Raharuhi said.

“The guys were just trying to find tarpaulins and they’re braving the wind and the rain and stuff in the cold for quite a while, while a lot of our girls or the woman we’re like trying to get all the photos and things off the walls and get them into the big shed.”

Despite their best efforts to protect the uninsured property from the elements, the wind and the rain still bulldozed through the house whānau had called home for 17 years.

“Yeah, so everything got pretty wrecked,” Raharuhi said.

“The whole ceiling on the bathroom and toilet was just gone.”

Raharuhi said her mother-in-law was in a near state of shock, thinking about what else could go wrong.

The whānau managed to save a few things from inside the home but most of the furniture was totalled.

Until the home is repaired, Hine has been staying at a family home close by with hopes to return to the home she shared with Eric.

Hine Raharuhi and the late Eric Zinsli Raharuhi.

Raharuhi said with the help of family and friends they are rebuilding the house starting with the roof, and then onto the floors, walls and furniture.

“We’re worried about the walls having mould and stuff growing in them,” Raharuhi said.

Hines son and Rhonda’s partner Josh is in the construction business and is working on repairing the home with tradies, which they hope to have sorted by the end of April.

A Givealittle page to ‘help rebuild Paka & Nan’s home’ has already raised more than $14,000 in donations.