‘Loved’ Puketapu artwork reunited with owner after vanishing in Cyclone Gabrielle

Joseph Story cleaned the caked mud off the painting and posted a picture on Facebook to try and find its owner.

By Lauren Crimp of RNZ

A piece of art thought to have been lost forever has been reunited with its owner almost a year after floodwaters ripped it from its Hawke’s Bay home during Cyclone Gabrielle.

A young boy, wearing a floppy wide-brim hat, beige collared shirt, and a greenish coat — Jen Bain-Titter thought she would never see the painting again.

But last week, on a stranger’s Facebook post, there it was.

“Never, ever, ever in a million years, ever thought we would see that picture again,” Bain-Titter said.

“And it wasn’t the most expensive picture in the house, by far. But it was so loved.”

Jen Bain-Titter.

It was a gift to her husband Mark as a Father’s Day present from their poodle; it had been hanging in their Puketapu home, Lauchlan Lodge, for about 20 years.

But in the wee hours of February 14, 2023, floodwater rushed through the lodge. They lost everything.

Eleven months later, and 2km down the road, Joseph Story was clearing a line for a fence at a property in Waiohiki when he spotted something in the long grass.

“I picked it up and thought it was just a bit of rubbish, and then I flipped it over and noticed it was a bit of a painting,” Story said.

Lauchlan Lodge, Jen Bain-Titter and husband Mark Titter's home and business, was destroyed when floodwaters ripped through it on February 14, 2023.

“I thought ‘oh yeah, that’s got to be special to someone’.”

After washing it, he posted a picture on Facebook, hoping to find the owner.

Within a few hours, he was knocking on Bain-Titter’s door, painting in hand — a little worse for wear than when she had last seen it.

She was gobsmacked. It must have escaped out the top window, just as she and her husband did, she said.

“That boy has floated with the water off the wall, travelled through the lodge, and found its way out the window, and just travelled on that shocking river, you could call it, down Breckenridge road and ended up in the vineyard.”

It was an emotional reunion, Story said.

“It was really cool, just happy to get it back to the rightful owner, and happy that it made Jen and her husband happy again, to have something that they’d lost during Cyclone Gabrielle.

“It was a special moment for us.”

The little boy was now waiting for their favourite picture framer to reopen, and decide how he might be restored, Bain-Titter said.

“He’s sitting on our lounge floor looking a bit dejected with his mud on him.

“But he’s back where he belongs, just in another house.”

Meanwhile, Story was eyeing his next rescue.

“I actually noticed there’s a bowl down in the waterway, down where we’re working, but it’s across the other side of the waterway.

“I might have to jump over and see if it’s something special to someone else, and try and get that to the owners, too.”