Saved...Carly emerging from the flood with a worried Tabitha the Cat.
There was little time to panic when Waipukurau horse breeder and trainer Carly Gray got the call last Thursday to say her horses were standing in floodwater over their knees and the level was rising rapidly.
Carly had been checking her Lindsay Rd property every two hours and surface water that had pooled overnight had dropped, leaving her confident the worst was over.
"I had checked them at 10.30am and the water was gone. Then I got a call at 1pm to say it was rising again, and fast. It was then we realised the river had come in and we needed to evacuate.
"There's a gap on the stopbank behind our property and we have had issues before with a small creek flooding, but in 13 years we've been there we've never seen the river come through.
"I called Kirsty Lawrence who was offering the Waipukurau racecourse as sanctuary for evacuated horses. She said bring as many as you need to. I had five to get out - three riding horses, two broodmares and my stallion."
With the horses tied up on a high spot of ground and ready to go, Carly turned to rescuing her trucks, digger and equipment.
"I was less stressed about the horses, I knew they would follow me anywhere, even as the floodwater rose to over their thighs. But the horse truck needed to come out so I could transport them. There were also trucks and equipment that we need to run our business."
Carly is extremely grateful to friends and members of the community who turned out to help.
"The roadside above our place was nose to tail with vehicles as people came to help. I can't thank them enough. We had to winch out some of the vehicles and save some of the hay to take to the racecourse for feed."
It took two trips in the truck to get the horses to the safety of the racecourse, by which time Carly and her helpers were wading through water over their waists.
The most heartwarming save, though, was Tabitha the stable cat.
"She was in a bus on the property. She might have been OK...the water was just starting to come into the bus, but I wasn't going to risk it."
Carly has lost all her winter hay and a car, with another vehicle suffering water damage.
"It is going to be a big cleanup. The water topped the fences in some places. There is debris everywhere, gear scattered , silted paddocks, the sheds need to be cleaned out and the troughs are full of mud.
"We had to get all our wet hay out of the shed. By Friday it was already starting to steam and compost ... it was hot. I could not believe how close to combusting it was. A local farmer and volunteer firefighter helped shift it with his tractor. He said if he didn't help shift it on Friday he'd be helping put out a shed fire by Saturday. It was so sodden and heavy it took two people to lift each bale."
Another sight Carly couldn't believe were the "trillions" of spiders that had climbed to safety on fenceposts and gates. "That was amazing. Something I would never have thought of, they just climbed anything they could to get out of the water."
She has another insight as well, after wading through deep, dirty floodwaters. "It was scary, the thought of losing horses and gear. I can see how people get killed trying to save their animals during floods. It would be easy to get carried away and take risks. Losing your animals would be very hard to live with."