Gisborne man Joss Ruifrok and daughters Tui and Indigo Ruifrok worked together to make the most of a bad situation at Manganuku campsite in the Waioweka Gorge when heavy rain caused slips and road closures resulting in around 40 people being evacuated last Friday.
It was thanks to the text-to-satellite capability on another stranded traveller’s mobile phone that they were able to co-ordinate a rescue.
Holly Tong and friend Haley Dalton were taking six teenagers to the Soundsplash music festival in Raglan when they pulled into the campsite to shelter from torrential downpours.
Tong had the One NZ text-to-satellite service, so was able to provide communications and get in touch with the Gisborne fire brigade.
“She was the main conduit of all our comms,” Ruifrok, the regional river manager at Gisborne District Council, said.
“There were around eight cars and a few tents at the campsite, and at around 10am, the sun came out,” he told the Gisborne Herald.
“Someone happened to have a coffee cart, so we just waited it out – listened to music and hung out.”
The Ruifroks had made an early start on Friday morning bound for Kerikeri to visit Joss Ruifrok’s brother, who was over from Perth.
“I’d checked the weather forecast and thought it looked okay, so we set off in my wife’s station wagon. We made it to Matawai and the heavens opened and the rain came down full tilt. It was intense,” he said.
“We had to take it really slowly but made it up over the saddle at the entrance to the Waioweka Gorge. I thought once we’d got over the hill the weather might be better on the Ōpōtiki side.”
About 1km from the Manganuku conservation campsite, the Ruifroks came up to a blocked culvert.
“A river was flowing across the road,” Ruifrok said. “We’re talking two metres of water, running fast. There was no way I was going to attempt to drive the station wagon through it.
“My co-worker, Samuel Chademana [the council’s climate change response manager], was ahead of us in a Hilux and went straight through it no problems. But it was shin-deep – he just bounced over some rocks.”
By this time the rain had eased, so Ruifrok decided to give it half an hour for the river to stop running so fast.
“I parked up and sure enough the flow went down. It was only ankle-deep by this time, so I drove through it.”
They made it to the Manganuku campsite, where they were informed there had been a big slip up ahead. They decided to investigate, so they drove slowly to have a look for themselves.
“It was around two metres high and there was a couple, covered in mud, trekking through it. They told us there was another slip up ahead of this one.”
The Ruifroks returned to the campsite where a group of people had congregated.
At about 4pm, two small helicopters – four-seaters with a pilot and a police officer in each – started bringing people in. They were evacuating people stuck at various parts on the gorge road and dropping them off at the Manganuku site.
Ruifrok and the others moved vehicles at the campsite and took down tents to make room for a Royal New Zealand Air Force NH90 helicopter to land.
The NH90, known as “the bus”, is the Royal New Zealand Air Force’s biggest helicopter at 20m in length and travelled from Palmerston North to assist. It can hold 11 people and four operators.
Ruifrok estimated there were about 40 people at the evacuation point by the time the NH90 arrived.
It shuttled people to Matawai, where it landed in the school field.
About three-quarters of the people went to Matawai and the others were transported south to Ōpōtiki, he said.
It was 11pm when Ruifrok and his girls were evacuated to Matawai School.
Police transported people back to Gisborne – a 45-minute drive.
Tong said they were the last group to be evacuated, and their husbands came to collect them from Matawai.
“We got to bed at around midnight and set off early the next day. It took around seven hours to get to Raglan on the Napier-Taupō Road, but the boys had a fantastic weekend. It’ll be one they’ll always remember.”
Ruifrok flew to Kerikieri at midday on Monday at a cost of approximately $870 for his return flights.