Everybody is safe and warm at Okirae and slips and stranded stock are the main problems, Hazel Gamec says. "There are slips in places that have never slipped before."
She and partner Harvey Coughlin have been farming on Whangaehu River flats in Orchard Rd since 2000, and last weekend was their third flood. None of them got to the house but this time the flats are a mess and there is silt through the shed.
They are cut off, as they were after the 2004 flood. Okirae Rd has been undermined and has mostly washed away.
"All you can do is just sit and look at it and say 'that's big'. You look at it and you just want to cry."
On Monday, a helicopter helped a farmer move stock that was otherwise out of reach. Kiwifruit and possibly pear orchards were affected by slips and flooding.