Cyclone Gabrielle: Widow’s priceless treasure rescued from Esk Valley home destroyed by mud

Craig Anderson had one dying wish as he battled terminal cancer.

It was to provide his beloved wife with a sanctuary of love to live in on family land in Esk Valley, an area which until Cyclone Gabrielle hit with deadly force six days ago was a beautiful slice of Kiwi paradise with fields covered in grapevines and fruit trees.

Craig had set Rawinia Anderson up in a modern, large caravan at the family property on SH5, and planted trees and flowers around the large vehicle.

Today, the home on wheels lies on its side; battered, broken and filled with mud and silt which the deadly wall of water created by Cyclone Gabrielle has now covered wide expanses of Esk Valley in.

Like so many others in the area, Rawinia lost most of her possessions, and almost her life, in the early hours of Tuesday.

But as family and friends launched a clean-up operation this weekend of her home, and a neighbouring family house, they were able to recover a wedding photo of the couple, something Rawinia described as precious.

“It is so special. Possessions are just possessions, but this is special,” Rawinia told the Herald.

“We were married for 45 years. Finding this means a lot.

“This area is what my husband had set up for me.

“He worked in the mines [in Australia] for over 12 years but he came back because of the [Covid] pandemic. He knew he didn’t have long to live, so he decided to set me up on my family land.”

Esk Valley resident Rawinia Anderson holds up a wedding photo of her and her late husband, Craig, which was recovered from her destroyed home. Photo / Neil Reid

The devastated slice of land has been in Anderson’s daily for more than 100 years.

Her great-grandparents first owned it and she said they endured “similar flooding” in the 1930s.

“They were survivors, got through and rebuilt their business,” she said.

More than 20 family, friends and other kind-hearted members of the community are this weekend trying to clear the site as best as they can.

Given the deep significance of the work Craig did in his dying months to set up the area, Rawinia said she had battled a mix of emotions before being ready to survey the damage.

“It took me a while to come over to this part of the property when I first came here,” she said.

“They told me they were doing the caravan area . . . but I feel good about it now.”

Flooding caused by Cyclone Gabrielle alongside SH5, Esk Valley, Hawke's Bay. Photo / Neil Reid

Last Monday night, as Cyclone Gabrielle started making its presence felt with strong winds and rainfall in Hawke’s Bay, Rawinia had tuned into TV news to see what the weather system might bring.

“They said it wasn’t going to be as bad as Cyclone Bola [where we live],” she said.

“But the strange thing was, I just felt it wasn’t going to be right that night. So I decided to take my dog, Buddy, and sleep over in the house.

“If I had of been in [the caravan], there would have been no way that I would have gotten out.”

Large expanses of fruit trees and vineyards through Esk Valley have been wiped out. Photo / Neil Reid

Her family’s life-and-death battle began in the early hours of Tuesday.

Rawinia had got out of bed – recalling “I had no idea why I did” - and looked out of the kitchen window of her relative’s house.

“I saw something shiny,” she said. “Then I realised that was the water.

“I then opened the curtains on the sliding door and everyone’s cars were moving.”

Rawinia said she and her loved ones had “only about 20 minutes” to think about how to escape the rapidly rising water.

Her brother’s son-in-law, Tana, realised he had a boat parked in the nearby shed.

“I said, ‘right, chuck everything out [of it] and bring the boat over to the house so we can put our dogs and ourselves in,” she said.

“He tried opening the plastic walls on the side [of the shed] and all he had was a butcher knife and a hammer to knock down the wall.”

Eventually the young man was able to smash his way into the shed, and bring the small boat around to the house.

By the time the impromptu rescue was deployed, the water was rapidly rising up the height of the family’s house.

“We then got electrical cords to tie it to the chimney of the house,” Rawinia said.

“Me, my nephew and the dogs sat in the boat . . . and [other family members] were on the roof of the house. We were a bit worried because the water was going up to the roof and the house was starting to creak and sounded like it was going to move.”

During their ordeal, about six calls were made to 111.

“But really, they couldn’t do a thing for us,” she said.

Help eventually came hours later when the group could hear emergency services making their way through nearby floodwaters.

Tana braved the floodwaters to swim to another location where the rescuers could see him.

They were eventually rescued around 8am, more than five hours after taking refuge.

For the third straight day, warm sun beats down on the battered Hawke’s Bay, including Esk Valley.

The scene along SH5 on the outskirts of Napier is one of pure devastation.

Large banks of mud and silt line the side of the state highway where crews have worked tirelessly to clear at least one lane of road for essential travel.

Some houses in the area have cars and boats through roofs. Others are swamped with mud, now rancid-smelling.

Entire orchards – including areas of grapevines and apple trees – have been wiped out.

As the clean-up goes on, Rawinia said the magnitude of what had happened, and everyone had endured, was finally starting to sink in.

“For the first couple of days’ we were in shock mode, but now everything is starting to sink in,” she said.

“I have just said to my family, ‘look if you want to cry, cry. Don’t be ashamed if you want to break down’.

“Showing emotions is healthy, it is healthy to do that and if you admit that you can’t cope today then that is the start of the healing. Give your loved ones a hug if you think they are not doing good.”

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