A total of 65 homes were affected with nine left uninhabitable. One of those burnt to the ground a few days later in a blaze blamed on floodwater infiltrating the wiring.
One of the worst affected homes belonged to Bridget Wallace, who had only arrived home after heart surgery a day earlier.
She said she had seen bigger floods in the past, but never one that was so fast.
“Within 12 minutes, everything was underwater. We just had time to get the vehicles out. Everything was floating. And I mean everything,” she said.
“I’ve lost everything. Everything that I owned.”
Bridget Wallace’s home was swamped by metre-deep, silt-laden floodwaters.
Photo / RNZ: Peter de Graaf
When RNZ called in, Wallace had finished shovelling away a stinking layer of silt and moved back into her cabin, but her mokopuna were still sleeping in borrowed campervans.
She was philosophical about the damage.
“It’s just material things that we’ve lost … we’re all still alive. That’s the main thing. It’s all that matters.”
Across the road, Christine Ryder is a caregiver for her mother in a home raised on stilts after the devastating 1999 flood.
She had seen plenty of floods before so was not overly concerned about the March 26 rain at first.
However, within 20 minutes the house was surrounded by water.
“It was very, very scary. The more the rain kept coming, the more it was coming up the stairs, the more worried we were getting, because mum’s immobile.”
When they decided to evacuate it was already too late to get out.
Christine Ryder’s family home was raised after the 1999 flood. Photo: RNZ / Peter de Graaf
Ryder said the water stopped rising just short of entering the house, but four cars were wrecked, with lawnmowers and everything in the sheds.
She woke the next morning to find her mother’s prized rose garden, with the rest of the property, buried under a thick layer of silt.
She and her sister shovelled the goop into piles, only to find it had spread out again by the following morning.
“We were so deflated and disheartened. But then the whānau from the kāinga [village] came with shovels and spades and wheelbarrows and got stuck in with us. A couple of diggers came in too.”
At the other end of the settlement, Shane Wikaira had also raised his home by 2m after the 1999 flood.
He could only watch as his home became an island in a mud-coloured sea.
“The rain was relentless. It just was like a war zone the next day, with logs everywhere and the debris. The cleanup was massive.”
‘Climate change is definitely upon us’
Long before the March flood, Whirinaki residents had been working on a plan to move their homes on to the hills overlooking the valley.
Chantez Connor-Kingi, of the Northland Regional Council, said the Government had allocated funding some years ago for seven communities most at risk from climate change.
The pūtea [money] from the National Infrastructure Fund had helped pay for flood mitigation measures such as stop-banks, a deflection bank, a spillway and improved drainage.
However, no solution could be found for reducing flood risk in Whirinaki.
Connor-Kingi said she took that news, and detailed flood maps, to a community meeting about 18 months ago.
The locals themselves concluded managed retreat was the only answer, which she described as “courageous”.
Shane Wikaira, with Kara the dog, raised his home by two metres after the 1999 flood. Photo / RNZ: Peter de Graaf
Whirinaki man Storm Tautari was appointed to manage the hapū-led project, with his sister Ruth Tautari, a teacher and chair of the Whirinaki Trust, assisting.
Then began the search for suitable land to relocate to.
“We asked, ‘Who in this room has land on higher ground, who can move and take other people with you?’”
Several blocks of Māori land were generously offered by local whānau, Connor-Kingi said.
Some turned out to be unsuitable – one would have required the construction of a bridge so would have been too costly, while others were found to be geologically unstable – but two blocks, with space for an initial 26 homes, had so far passed the test.
Connor-Kingi said it was vital the new homes were close to the existing settlement.
“We didn’t want to create a geographical divide, knowing that these people have been brought up there their whole lives, and they’re probably the eighth or ninth generation to the whenua. So we needed whenua where they could still feel connected to their lands and see it every day.”
The South Hokianga community of Whirinaki is in a valley surrounded by steep mountains but may have to move to avoid frequent flooding. Photo / Denise Piper
Auckland-based planning firm The Urbanist was hired to draw up plans for new papakāinga housing, and the Whirinaki Trust wrote up a detailed business case.
The cost of new homes and community infrastructure, assuming 80 whānau had to be relocated, was put at $60 million.
A series of economic development initiatives, aiming to reverse the area’s high degree of deprivation, would cost another $26m.
According to the business case, about a fifth of that was expected to come from philanthropic groups and foundations, with the rest from central government.
Connor-Kingi said the Whirinaki Trust was currently in talks with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development.
She said the investment made sense given the high cost of cleaning up after repeated floods.
“When you think about the amount of money you spend on recovery, our whānau wouldn’t have to endure that. You’re actually long-term saving pūtea if these flood events are coming more regularly.”
Connor-Kingi said managed retreat was not entirely new to Whirinaki.
Some residents had rebuilt on higher ground after the 1999 flood, while others had raised their homes on stilts.
However, if the entire settlement moved, that would be a first for the country.
“It’s nothing new for New Zealand to see our whānau flooded. But a total community being relocated, that would be the first of its kind.
“It just shows you how climate change is definitely upon us and our taiao [environment] is telling us we can no longer be in these harmful pathways.”
She said a door-to-door survey had found 43 homes and about 260 people would need to be moved off the flood plain.
‘Here since the beginning of time’
Whirinaki residents spoken to by RNZ had mixed views about moving to higher ground.
Some, like Bridget Wallace, who lost everything in the March flood, were determined to stay put.
“I’m not interested in that, I’m sorry. No way will I go move. Our tūpuna [ancestors] didn’t run away from their land,” she said.
Shane Wikaira, who had already raised his home, was also reluctant to shift.
“My grandfather was here, my great-grandfather, it goes back generations. We’ve been here, well, since Kupe came, the beginning of time. So it’s more than just land to me,” he said.
Christine Ryder doubted her mother would agree to leave her home and beloved garden.
“I think moving to high ground is a good idea. I just know mum won’t do it.”
Te Aomarama, 5, waits while the family cabin is moved to higher ground.
Photo / RNZ: Peter de Graaf
However, Dwayne Rawiri would shift tomorrow if he could.
When RNZ visited he was moving his family cabin to a higher part of the property, out of the mud and damp, before winter set in.
“I most definitely would move, now that I’m thinking of not only myself, but I have eight children to think of. I really hope we can move up onto higher ground that we all whakapapa back to.”
Rawiri worried about the future of Whirinaki if the floods kept coming.
“I feel for everyone in our valley, I don’t see a solution for it if it happens again, I think we’re just going to have a whole community busted to be honest, maraes and all,” he said.
“I feel for our children going through this, having to live down here, and look up at the hills. We tatai [connect] to every one of the hills around here. I think that is totally the only solution for us.”
If funding can be secured, the new homes will be built off-site with earthworks starting as soon as October.
The March storm turned State Highway 12 through Whirinaki into a torrent at least half a metre deep. Photo / RNZ: Peter de Graaf
‘Long-lasting hurt, grief and fear’
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts said he recognised the disruption and damage communities suffered as a result of severe weather events, including flooding.
“The Government remains committed to working with councils and local communities to determine the best way forward for people living in areas exposed to climate risks.
“Decisions of this nature are best made at the local level and councils have a leading role. I encourage communities to work with their local councils, and we know that’s already happening in some areas.”
Watts said the Government had set up a National Adaptation Framework and was working on “an enduring system” that prepared New Zealand for the effects of climate change, while keeping costs as low as possible.
Since 2020, more than $1 billion had been invested in flood protection, including $200 million from the current Government’s Regional Infrastructure Fund.
The fund had supported resilience projects nationwide, including in Northland, he said.
Just last week the Climate Change Commission released a major report in which it warned climate-driven severe weather events were already causing “long-lasting hurt, grief and fear”, and tens of thousands more people could be exposed to hazards by 2050.
The commission’s chief executive, Jo Hendy, said there were “extreme” shortfalls in policy to address some of the biggest risks, including vital decisions about how to guide and pay for adaptation and relocation.
Hendy said too much money was spent cleaning up after events, instead of on proactive measures to limit damage and build community resilience.