As the rain came down on January 21, Wright and her moko sat in the car, poised to evacuate.<\/p>\n
She periodically flicked the headlights on watching the water, while her husband monitored the levels from inside their tiny home.<\/p>\n
The property, which now had a few dwellings and a deck, was just a bare paddock with some trees when they bought it five years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd as soon as we walked on this land we just knew it was us,\u201d Wright said, and after years of work, they had finally made it their off-the-grid dream.<\/p>\n
\u201cPunaruku Stream is our boundary between us and the camping ground, and it was just a little trickler.\u201d<\/p>\n
That night, however, her neighbours told her that the stream was climbing up the bridge \u2013 and that this time, the rain and the water levels were different.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first thing I noticed was the smell changed, the earth, the debris.<\/p>\n
\u201cI flicked on my lights and all I could see was this wall of water \u2013 logs, debris, in the neighbour\u2019s section come flying towards me … and I just planted it.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the phone to Steve, she yelled at him to \u201cget the hell out of there\u201d.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon flies over properties in Te Araroa affected by the storm that damaged parts of the North Island. Photo \/ Corey Fleming<\/p>\n
\u201cHe just heard the logs hitting our tiny home. He couldn\u2019t go out the front door because of the water level and the debris.\u201d<\/p>\n
While he escaped with the dog out the back, Wright and her grandson found a \u201cpocket\u201d at the base of the hill \u2013 but with slips in front of them and the bridge impassable behind them, they were trapped.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were slips going all around us, so we were having to shuffle backwards and forwards because we could hear the crackling and stuff coming down.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was a sleepless night.<\/p>\n
Wright\u2019s neighbours had escaped with their five children on to the roof of their house and on the phone to Te Araroa Civil Defence, all she could do was flash her headlights at them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were asking us if we could see them, and thankfully … one of them had a high-vis on … so I could tell them, \u2018Yes, they\u2019re still on the roof\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Huia Ngatai and her family, the youngest only 3 years old, survived their ordeal and were evacuated by helicopter the next morning.<\/p>\n
Wright said their property was \u201ctotal devastation\u201d.<\/p>\n
A Givealittle page dedicated to the Ngatai family\u2019s recovery has received numerous donations and messages of support.<\/p>\n
To Wright\u2019s surprise, a page had also been set up for her and Steve \u2013 by their daughter \u2013 detailing what they had lost and the tough clean-up ahead.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe didn\u2019t tell me she was doing it, I didn\u2019t request it at all. I\u2019m totally humbled by it and just so grateful for people\u2019s love and support.<\/p>\n
\u201c[There] are so many people that need help, we\u2019re just one of many [families]. It\u2019s not just us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wright said she had evacuated to the Hinerupe Marae the morning after the storm, where she had been well looked after.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re very beautiful people, they\u2019ve been amazing. I\u2019m so glad I\u2019ve moved to a community where people are just amazing, and make you feel so loved.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn these times, just a hug\u2019s all you need.\u201d<\/p>\n
-RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the rain came down on January 21, Wright and her moko sat in the car, poised to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258030,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[143494,38534,11557,22857,145084,71,14322,48056,42,7052,43,1118,8690,40,38,41,39,13558],"class_list":["post-258029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-araroa","tag-argue","tag-describes","tag-escape","tag-floodwaters","tag-from","tag-grandmother","tag-harrowing","tag-headlines","tag-mary","tag-news","tag-of","tag-te","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-wall"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}