The school run looks a little different for Hawke's Bay kids crossing the Mangaone River since Cyclone Gabrielle. Video / Laura Marinus
A boat, car and bus trip is what it takes to get rural tamariki in isolated communities to school in Hawke’s Bay after Cyclone Gabrielle.
With many bridges and roads leading to Puketapu School destroyed, kids in rural communities such as Rissington now take their own intrepid adventure to get to school with the help of the local community.
Laura Marinus shared a now-viral video to Facebook on Monday, featuring her kids Poppy, 9, and Kees, 6, as they safely traversed through the flood-damaged landscape with the help of locals and response teams to get to school.
The journey involves taking cars to the riverbank, a boat across the river, another car ride to get up the hill, and then a bus to school.
“My daughter was a bit scared of going in the boat at first, but after that first time she was having a blast,” Marinus said.
Boat trips have become a lifeline for the cut-off community, with trips occurring daily to cross the Mangaone River to gather essential supplies and transport those who need to get to the other side.
About 15 kids currently use the new school route, with the inaugural boat trip happening on Monday morning and helmed by local fireman Andrew O’ Rourke.
Red Cross, Civil Defence and Surf Life Saving NZ then took over on Monday afternoon and have been running the trip since.
Poppy, 9, and Kees, 6, wait for their daily 'River Cruise', to get to school. Photo / Supplied
“It was two weeks of the kids being home, and we just thought we need to get them to school and figure this out,” Marinus said.
“My husband was with the 5/7th battalion at the time, and I joked that he could just come over in a Unimog.”
Staff and the community at Puketapu School organised to get the kids over on the boat and for the bus to meet the kids near the top of the hill by Apley Rd.
The operation definitely takes a village.
Marinus said that locals, fire crews and Civil Defence operators in the region continue to ferry over supplies via boats and ziplines on the other side.
The river ran too fast on Tuesday, so the trip was deemed unsafe and subsequently cancelled.
Eager tamariki wait to cross the Mangaone River to get to school. Photo / Supplied
While the journey may look like a struggle to some, it acts as a prime example of what many rural communities are doing during these times.
When it came to the video, Marinus said she made it as a memento for the kids to showcase the get-up-and-go attitude that many across Hawke’s Bay are taking right now.
“I made the video for the kids to remember that when something happens just to get on with it, make do and find a way around it.”
