Kaiteriteri holiday park devastated as wall of water floods site

A wall of water left devastation at the Bethany Park holiday camp, Kaiteriteri.

By Mary Argue of RNZ

A “wall of water” filled with forestry slash has laid waste to parts of a Kaiteriteri holiday park, forcing a daring escape in a digger bucket.

Heartbroken locals say the relentless rain was like nothing they had ever seen and, by mid-afternoon, a torrent of water – waist-high and full of forestry slash – was barrelling through parts of Kaiteriteri’s Bethany Park camp.

Picking her way through deep silt, Waka Abel Tasman tourism business co-owner Lee-Ann Jago showed RNZ damage caused to boats, shelters and caravans that were usually stored at the back of the campsite.

She said the mess was so overwhelming, she didn’t know where to begin and couldn’t believe the park’s permanent residents weren’t hurt when the usually small creek burst its banks.

Bethany Park campground at Kaiteriteri was left full of silt and forestry slash after yesterday's heavy rainfall. Photo / RNZ

“I just feel sorry for all of these people that live in Bethany Park,” Jago said. “I heard that an older couple couldn’t get out of their caravan last night and got rescued in a digger... hopped in the bucket.

“We’re really lucky that nobody lost their lives in this.”

About 200 people were at the park, but only 2-3 needed accommodation elsewhere.

Jago said she was alerted to the damage last night but it was too dangerous to try to save anything. She was shocked when she arrived at first light today.

One waka was destroyed and a new storage shelter ruined, while the rest of the boats were surrounded by at least a metre of silt and slash.

“It’s heartbreaking,” she said. “This was our first waka that we got for our business and it took the brunt of the water.”

Jago estimated the business would be out of operation for weeks – even though it was the off-season, staff were still running boats a couple of times per week.

“It feels quite overwhelming to even be thinking about the amount of work just to tidy things up,” she said. “We won’t be able to be on the water for some time.”

Jago had lived in the area since 1998 and likened the damage to a warzone, saying she had never experienced such relentless rain.

She and other locals were worried it would happen again, and called for a serious conversation “at the highest levels” about forestry slash, once everything had been repaired.

“Because our communities have been devastated – our communities on the East Coast here – it’s not fair,” she said.