Almost a year after the devastating floods bought on by Cyclone Gabrielle a church has been reborn. Eskdale Church hosted it's first service carol singing since being inundated with flood water and silt. Video / Warren Buckland
The Barber family still don’t know whose car came crashing upside down through the side of their home in Eskdale north of Napier during Cyclone Gabrielle.
The upside-down Mazda, which washed down Esk Valley and smashed through the wall of their garage, was one of the most powerful images of the cyclone that swept through Hawke’s Bay a year ago, claiming eight lives in the region and three more elsewhere in New Zealand.
The car’s prone state showed the true force of what had swept through a once idyllic collection of lifestyle properties on the morning of February 14.
A photo of it, by Hawke’s Bay Today chief photographer Warren Buckland, featured on the front page of the Herald and the Hawke’s Bay Today’s special free edition in the days after the cyclone.
For Chris Barber, the helplessness of the car, sums up the experience he and his family lived through, even though he had no idea it had hit his house until later that week.
Chris, wife Luciana, and their two young children were huddled inside the ceiling of the house during the worst of the floods in the pitch black of the Esk Valley night.
The upside down car which smashed through the side of the Barber family home on Shaw Rd in Eskdale during the cyclone. Photo / by Warren Buckland
They survived by breaking a hole in their ceiling using a wooden toy, just as the rising floodwaters threatened to engulf them, huddling together in the roof cavity for hours hoping the water wouldn’t reach them.
The trauma of that night remains real, but the family haven’t given up on Esk Valley. They plan to return to live in the community, albeit on higher land.
“We love Esk Valley because we have spent so much time there - we got married there, we even met in the valley,” Chris, who owned Zeelandt Brewery in the valley, said.
“We got married in Eskdale Church and had our wedding in the brewery, so the valley means a lot to us.
“We have decided to stay and we were lucky enough to find a bare bit of land in Esk Hills - so it is still Esk Valley but in Esk Hills.
“We bought some bare land and got a building consent come through in November, so building has started.”
Chris Barber and son Oliver next to the corner of their house which a car ploughed into during the floods. Photo / Connull Lang
He said they hoped to move in by the end of 2024, and have been living in a rental in Bay View in the meantime, which has been fantastic as their children still attend nearby Eskdale School.
He said he had never found out whose vehicle it was that had done the damage to their home.
“I didn’t see that until I made my way back there the next day,” he said.
“The car - I don’t have a memory of first seeing it - but it sort of sums it up, how the cyclone just pushed everything around.”
He said it was removed by volunteers to confirm there was nobody inside and was eventually taken away.
Chris and son Oliver look at where they escaped the floods engulfing their home, by breaking holes in their ceiling. Photo / Connull Lang
“My first view [after being rescued] was looking up the valley and it was just brown water and grey sky and then I looked down and saw the Cone and Flower [restaurant and garden bar] and the brewery and saw the water levels, then looked across [to my brother’s] vineyard and was like ‘where is the vineyard - it is gone’.”
Zeelandt beer is now brewed by a contractor in Auckland as Barber’s brewery was destroyed by the floodwaters, and he has no plans to rebuild it on that site.
Instead, he said he plans on changing careers and following another passion - conservation - while continuing to brew beer more as a hobby.
He said one of the things he and his wife were most proud of from last year was releasing a special edition beer, Back on the Horse, to raise money for groups that helped the wider community.
He said they were “so overwhelmed” by people’s support and generosity and wanted to give something back.
An aerial picture of what their Category 3 home looks like now, a year on from the cyclone, which will eventually be demolished. Photo / Connull Lang
“All the suppliers came on board and we managed to get this beer out and we managed to raise $15,000 from that beer and that went to Bay View Fire Brigade, the [Hawke’s Bay] Rescue Helicopter, and the local community charitable trust.”
He said they also raised $5000 at a fundraiser at Bay View Hotel with the help of friends.
Barber said the anniversary of the floods would probably be like any other day for him.
“I don’t think February 14 will be particularly any different to me, because every day you relive it, it is front of mind really.
“I guess that will change over time but at the moment you can’t avoid it.”
Gary Hamilton-Irvine is a Hawke’s Bay-based reporter who covers a range of news topics including business, councils, breaking news and cyclone recovery. He formerly worked at News Corp Australia.
