Northland tsunami warning: One Tree Point community unites hillside amid alert

Kirsten united with paddock owner Bruce and neighbour Tania to present them with a treatment voucher thanking them for their generosity during the tsunami warning. Photo / Jodi Bryant

When Tania Papera returned home on Friday and found a stranger in her kitchen making scones she wasn't alarmed – instead they became friends.

But that was the theme of the day as Northlanders made for higher ground amid the tsunami alert issued for the region.

Papera was running errands when Friday's tsunami alert sounded. She quickly changed course and focused on retrieving her three children from various schools around the district. After learning that two were safe on higher ground, she collected the third child from the local primary school and headed toward her One Tree Point home atop farmland.

Along her journeys, she'd received phone calls from friends asking if they could access her hillside paddock but she was still surprised to find her 1km driveway full of vehicles.

"I couldn't get up the driveway so I parked the car and walked up – the drive was chocka, nose-to-tail."

Arriving at the house, the evacuation was in full swing with vehicles parked up, kids bouncing on the trampoline and a woman making scones in her kitchen.

"I'd said to my friends who'd rung earlier to just open the doors and help yourself so I didn't mind at all, apart from the fact I'd left the house in a state," she laughed.

"We'd left in a hurry, having made the school lunches, and everything had been left out on the bench.

"The lady's name was Rhonda and she had found the flour and she made batches and batches of scones."

Over the course of the day, Papera and Rhonda accrued a team who catered for the increasing number of vehicles, which Papera estimated at 500, all making for several hilltop paddocks.

These included the adjacent paddocks of neighbours Bruce and Gaye Cann who were out of town with family and camped on a hillside at Matakana.

However, years earlier, the Canns had offered their hill to Civil Defence for such occasions.

"We were in Matakana up on top of another hill with family," said Gaye. "The neighbour opened the gate because she knew we wouldn't mind. The first we learned of it was the next day when someone rang to thank us."

Kirsten's dog Oscar was kept hydrated and happy during the six-hour hilltop ordeal.

That person was Ruakākā resident Kirsten Williams who reached out on the One Tree Point Grapevine Facebook page asking for the names of the owners to thank them for the paddock she, her partner Craig and dog Oscar had spent six hours parked up on.

"We were actually heading toward the Prescott Rd hill and noticed people going up to Bruce and Gaye's farm," Williams said.

"We spent six hours up there and listened to everyone's music playing from their cars and chatted to locals and kept the dog hydrated and were observing the sea from where we could see it."

The Beauty on the Move proprietor wasn't aware the owners weren't onsite at the time but wanted to thank them. When she phoned, they were at first confused before the couple later pointed out that neighbours, including Papera, had also opened their gates.

"It was just a random serious occurrence. We've had drills but not to this extent. When someone opens up their property it just means so much to a lot of people who were quite scared, to be fair. A guy up there joked that there was more people up there than Woodstock.

"You just want to get to the highest point that you can and I think they deserve recognition and a thank you."

The gratitude had been rolling in. One person even attached a "thank you" sign to the Canns' gate.

Papera also provided sunscreen, filled bottles of water that were delivered to the cars, connected speakers on the deck so evacuees could hear the news updates, use of her toilet with the queue snaking down her hallway, over her deck and on to the lawn and even rummaging up some nappies for babies.

"There were some people who were unwell or had animals and couldn't leave their vehicles and, as more people arrived, they were able to help guide them to the toilets and deliver them essentials," she said.

One Tree Point School kids were kept entertained in the shade on Tania's lawn and eventually started a communal singalong.

Among the throngs were about 80 pupils from One Tree Point School, where Papera's 9-year-old daughter goes.

"She got really excited when they showed up at her place," Papera said.

The students and teachers parked up under the trees where Papera had set out blankets and began a singalong while one of the teachers played guitar. One child even had an impromptu birthday party there.

An impromptu birthday party was held at Tania's house for a One Tree Point School student during the tsunami alert.

"I took all the blankets out of the house and they sat there singing and playing. The kids started the entertaining and everyone joined in," said Papera, who only had time to sit down toward the end of the six-hour ordeal.

"I just lost track of time. We ended up with a main team of people and I made quite a few friends that day. We'd probably passed each other and knew each other's faces but had never spoken."

By the time her two oldest children arrived home, it was all over and the place was cleared.

"My teenage boy could see the whole thing from the hill he was on. He was wishing he was there, although I think he just wanted the Wi-Fi."

Papera said, surprisingly, there was no litter left behind and Cann said, after returning on Sunday, once lockdown had lifted, apart from flattened grass, there was no evidence hundreds of vehicles and people had been there.

Tania Papera with some of the many gifts she has been receiving from grateful locals. Photo / Jodi Bryant

As well as new friendships, Papera had deliveries of flowers, chocolates, home baking, groceries and a leg of lamb.

"I discovered money in my letterbox which was naughty," she said. "People keep saying 'Tania did this' but it wasn't me, it was a bunch of us. I just provided the toilet."

Papera was glad she asked the names of what was to become her crew that day but wished they'd exchanged contact details. They were Rhonda, Nadia, Meg and Tehani, with Meg even cleaning her house.

"I was so embarrassed but really grateful to her too."

Serendipitously, Papera had started following Williams' page only a fortnight ago, contemplating booking a massage after an injury. Although Williams was on the adjacent paddock, yesterday they met when she presented Papera with a voucher for a treatment.