About 200 students from 15 schools, including one from Lower Hutt, performed a waiata in Irongate School's hall. Te huripari o Kapariera was written by Ōmāhu School principal Te Kewena White about Cyclone Gabrielle. Video / Paul Taylor
A Pōrangahau family who have moved eight times in a year are finally back on solid ground.
Tania Nicholas, her husband Orlando MacDonald and their two children returned in late January to the Central Hawke’s Bay property that floodwaters carved a path through on February 14, 2023.
Life’s not perfectyet - they’re in a cabin rather than the house they had made into a home before - but they’re thrilled to be back.
After Cyclone Gabrielle the family moved eight times between five houses and lived out of a basket filled with everything they owned, never unpacking.
During the cyclone the Pōrangahau River through the town, known by some locals as the Taurekaitai, overflowed.
Their family property of seven years - in the heart of the town beside the dairy and the Flotsam and Jetsam Coffee Cart - was inundated.
Before the cyclone, their home was filled with mismatched furniture which was often rearranged, as they liked to change the look and feel of each room.
Orlando Macdonald wades through flood waters towards the coffee cart. Photo / Tania Nicholas
“It was a space that we were proud of because we had made something that was in dire disrepair into something that was now ours,” Nicholas said.
She said the morning of February 14 had started wet, and when she saw surface flooding on the driveway she decided to wash and dry the dishes - she reasoned that didn’t want to return to the mess if they had to leave.
But she never finished. She looked up halfway through and realised the water had risen rapidly and they needed to swiftly evacuate.
Both Nicholas and her husband played key roles in the initial emergency with the volunteer Fire Brigade and St John.
They knocked on doors and helped the community to safety at the evacuation centre in the Pōrangahau Town Hall until that too began to flood, and they needed to move.
“We had already used up plan A and we were in plan B which was the clubrooms and we didn’t have a plan C,” Nicholas said.
The couple then found themselves separated at each end of the village, but still had cell phone reception and were able to call each other.
“I wasn’t able to see my house, but I could see Orlando who was basically in and around our house, trying to clear out some of the sumps and so he was in full view of what was happening.”
She described feeling nervous and uneasy at the thought of separation.
Tania Nicholas and Orlando MacDonald when they were reunited in front of their house. Photo / Tania Nicholas
“We were both looking at each other, and we knew what each other was saying.”
She said she was proud of her family for the strength that they’d shown over the past year.
In her time away from Pōrangahau, Nicholas said she missed the sounds of the village - but not the deep-fried smell of chicken and chips wafting into her home.
When they came back home, they brought only a few personal belongings and household items they had been given after the cyclone - that’s all they feel they need now.
While the whānau still have a long way to go before they can move into the house, they are grateful to, finally, be back home.
Michaela Gower joined Hawke’s Bay Today in 2023 and is based out of the Hastings newsroom. She covers Dannevirke and Hawke’s Bay news and has a love for sharing stories about farming and rural communities.
