“But he’s okay, he came back to get his things but it was impossible, the ute was totally submerged.”
He added that the man was middle-aged and visiting the area from Auckland.
The local man, who owns a farm in nearby Whenuakite, described the flooding as “worse than Bola” and “bigger than Gabrielle”.
“I couldn’t get to my farm today,” he said.
“I tried all morning, but I couldn’t get up there, so I had to get neighbours to put their wetsuit on and go and shift my stock for me today.
“What happens in floods is people lose livestock because there’s silage bales floating around.
“There’s all sorts of damage when you get a flood that you didn’t expect.”
The man said local farmers were looking out for each other’s stock as floods set in, including rescues by kayak.
“Neighbours were kayaking around in the flood and found another farmers’ five cows that were drowning and rescued them for them,” he said, adding: ”It’s what neighbours do, isn’t it?"
In a separate incident, he described the efforts of a farmer who was forced to evacuate his wife and children by boat after their home was engulfed by floodwaters.
“He evacuated them successfully and they’ve gone to a neighbour’s but he’s gone back to stay in his home with his animals.
“He’s got other animals so he wants to stay in the home if he can so he’s going to ride the flood out.”
The man reported the tide had begun to recede and waters had “dropped six inches”, but he said there was still danger to come.
“We’re going to be in a lot worse trouble the next high tide later this evening, it’s going to be even higher. and it’s still raining here.”
A state of emergency is currently in place across several regions including the Coromandel, Bay of Plenty and the Whangārei District.
Locals were advised not to swim or drive in floodwater and warned to avoid all non-essential travel.
