Cyclone Gabrielle: National leader Christopher Luxon visits apple orchard and home devastated by floods

The apples on Kevin Bayley’s orchard in Twyford are ready to pick, but they’re stuck hanging on trees surrounded by thick sludgy silt.

”They’ve been smashed... we don’t know how we’re going to get them off”, he said.

”It’s going to be interesting trying to pick it. We’ll have a go on Monday, but there will be mud for Africa.”

Bayley was ankle-deep in mud as he trudged across to the nearest tree and picked some fruit.

The apples were perfect - red, crunchy, and sweet.

Bayley Produce employs 35 permanent staff and 300 staff in the summer.

The family-owned business has 100 hectares of orchards after starting out more than 30 years ago.

Bayley’s son Max said it was “panic stations” as the flood waters inundated their family home nestled between the apple trees.

”We were looking around and the water kept coming up and up. We didn’t have any phone reception or anything so we didn’t know when it was going to stop or what was going on.

”I waded out through the water to the shed to get a ladder and then saw a raft floating in the shed next to me and thought that would be a bit dryer than trying to wade the rest of the way through the flood water. So, we jumped on the raft with our dog and paddled out.”

National Party leader Christopher Luxon with transport spokesman Simeon Bown (left), Max and Kevin Bayley and the party's candidate for Tukituki, Catherine Wedd. Photo / Paul Taylor

Since returning to their home, they have pulled up the carpet and moved everything out.

What was an idyllic part of the world is now just an empty shell.

The pair said they were looking to the Government for financial support to help them and other growers.

National Party leader Christopher Luxon visited the orchard this afternoon with the party’s transport spokesman Simeon Brown and Tukituki candidate Catherine Wedd.

Luxon said people were in a state of shock and the focus should be on the immediate response like reconnecting people.

There was also a serious economic challenge in Hawke’s Bay, he said.

Kevin Bayley trudged through the silt to pick one of his perfect apples for those visiting his orchard to try. Photo / Paul Taylor

There was a need for wage subsidy support and relaxed immigration settings so existing workforces like seasonal workers could assist in the clean-up and be redeployed, Luxon said.

Special legislation with emergency powers to crack through consenting would be necessary and banks needed to stand by customers, he said.

Relentless downpours and flooding are likely to hit fruit and vegetable supply in the coming weeks, further pushing up prices.

Experts say consumers are likely to face price hikes on fruit and vegetables at the supermarket, especially for pears, apples, stonefruit, berries and leafy vegetables.

“The impact will be huge,” senior Westpac agricultural economist Nathan Penny said, citing extensive damage growers have suffered.

Barely two weeks ago, crops were also wiped out in some Auckland horticultural regions during the deadly Anniversary Weekend storm.

There, as in Hawke’s Bay, many crops were ready for harvest but were wrecked or washed away in floods.

Horticulture NZ this week said weather disasters, combined with concerns about labour shortages and inflation, had some growers questioning if they’d be able to stay in the industry.