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The sound of rain immediately puts Jeanette Darwen back into survival mode.
That’s provided she can hear it over the noise of the generators.
They’re still without power and water at Silky Oak Chocolates.
The drains are full of silt, as are the septic tanks, which can’t be emptied asa result.
A six-month and seven-figure refit looms at the Hawke’s Bay institution, where 660 kilograms of chocolate were left in a rubbish truck on Tuesday.
“But this place has to go forward, it has to be rebuilt. We have to do it for the community and give them back something that’s theirs,” a defiant Darwen told Hawke’s Bay Today.
The generator-powered water pumps might “have had it”, but Darwen and her 18 staff are determined to keep going.
Silky Oak was inundated by water on February 14. Photo / Paul Taylor
Be they a chocolatier or head of the packaging department, they’re all cleaners now.
Others have furiously dug holes above buried drains in recent days, as rain threatened to flood Silky Oak all over again.
It’s not a pretty sight, but that hasn’t stopped people from wandering in and asking if they can buy some chocolate or a coffee.
“For heaven’s sake - look around you,” a chuckling Darwen said.
With both fingers crossed, she hopes to be able to sell some stock salvaged from Silky Oak’s pantry shop in the semi-near future. They’ll convert the complex’s café into a temporary retail area so that some customers can get Easter goodies.
Half of a large order of marshmallow eggs for a commercial client was packaged prior to Cyclone Gabrielle and has been dispatched as well.
Otherwise, there’s just a huge clean-up going on, across every part of the business.
Silky Oak is more than just a chocolate shop, with its museum, manufacturing arm, café and orchard out the back.
Darwen had her hands full when Links Rd became - what she described as - “Huka Falls” during the worst of the flooding.
A neighbour had to be rescued, while other residents hauled themselves to Silky Oak via the wire atop rows of grapes at the adjacent vineyard. Then, when everyone was safe and accounted for, it was time to retrieve a few artefacts.
Jeanette Darwen surveys the inside of her flood-damaged business. Photo / Paul Taylor
“That was our first priority. Yes, sorry folks, it came before the chocolate.
“We’ve recovered 95 per cent of it, because it can’t be replaced. You know, there’s a 2500-year-old Mayan chocolate pot in there,” Darwen said.
Joking aside, these are hard times for Silky Oak and its staff. There’s uncertainty, fear and incredible fatigue.
But there’s also know-how.
“In a previous occupation, prior to Silky Oak, we had a commercial cleaning business. The work we did was cleaning for insurance companies, so things like fire and smoke, and we did Cyclone Bola as well, so we know what to do and how to take the steps,” explained Darwen.
Power and water would be a help, but Darwen is undeterred.
“I have to mention my staff. They’ve been incredible, and we’re going to make sure they’re looked after and make sure that they’ve got their jobs.”
