Almost two years on, it hasn’t reopened and work is continuing.
Bazzard lives on the other side of the gorge from the school. Before the cyclone, the school run would have taken her five minutes in her car.
Now it takes her up to an hour in her car, not that she’s needed that. Bazzard’s a dedicated woman and in her own words, she loves going to work.
Kererū School teacher Sophie Bazzard crosses 7km of hilly farmland to and from work in all kinds of weather while the Kererū Gorge repairs from Cyclone Gabrielle continue. Photo / Jack Riddell
So, rain, wind, snow, hail and shine, she’s done the cycle trip on her e-bike every school day this year.
Principal Kelsie Allen said she had never met someone more positive about biking to work every day.
“She has biked in orange rain warnings, in orange wind warnings and arrives every time still with a smile and leaves with a smile. I don’t think you could ever meet someone quite like that.
“I would’ve given up months ago. I’m not as hardy. She’s pretty amazing and we’re all so grateful that she’s doing that journey to be a teacher at our school.”
Sophie Bazzard arrives at Kererū School clean and ready to teach after her 7km morning ride through muddy and hilly farmland. Photo / Jack Riddell
Bazzard’s journey starts at 7.30am when she puts on gumboots, high-vis overtrousers, a quilted coat, an oilskin and thermal gloves.
The theory is all these will keep out not only the cold and the mud, but the bovine and ovine dung. There are plenty of little landmines to dodge and she can’t manoeuvre her way around them all.
“The worst thing is when all the ewes have been in a paddock and there’s just poo everywhere and I come to school just covered in green poo,” Bazzard said.
“I think I’ve got some in my mouth once which wasn’t nice, but it is just green grass I suppose – bit of probiotics.”
Bazzard’s biggest worry is coming across gates pushed back by bulls.
Road trip leg 6.
“I have to go through the bull paddock sometimes and then the bulls rub up against the gates and then the gate goes through past the post, so I can’t open the sodding things.
“So I’ve been there on my bottom, on the ground bracing my feet against the post pulling and pulling, trying to open the gate. All the time the bulls are roaring around me.”
The destroyed road through the Kererū Gorge. Photo / Paul Taylor
Bazzard lives right beside the Kererū Gorge with her partner. The pair have been watching the repair project’s 24-hour operation, which had been set to be completed this Christmas, take shape.
After a recent structural evaluation, it was decided more steel reinforcement was needed to ensure the long-term resilience of the culvert.
A Hastings District Council spokeswoman said an update on a likely new date for the gorge to reopen would be known in early December.
“[The repairs] have taken a long time, but I’m a bit of a soft touch,” Bazzard said.
“The workers are working as hard as time allows, I know that. But they’re not slacking – hell no.”
Some of the picturesque farm scenery Sophie Bazzard cycles through on her way to teach at Kererū School. Photo / Jack Riddell
Sophie Bazzard says she will miss her mornings and afternoons whizzing through the idyllic countryside when the gorge has reopened. Photo / Jack Riddell
Bazzard says she will miss her mornings and afternoons whizzing through the idyllic countryside of Kererū when the gorge has reopened, but she won’t miss opening and closing paddock gates.
“On a good day, you might have two or three gates, on a bad day 11, and I won’t miss that.
