{"id":287426,"date":"2026-02-17T00:01:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T00:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/287426\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T00:01:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T00:01:12","slug":"farmer-rescues-sheep-stranded-in-banks-peninsula-floodwaters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/287426\/","title":{"rendered":"Farmer rescues sheep stranded in Banks Peninsula floodwaters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/4JT2POR_Media_8_jfif.jpeg\" width=\"1050\" height=\"1400\" alt=\"Farm worker rescues stranded sheep after huge downpours at Teddington, Banks Peninsula.\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"photo-captioned__information\">\nFarm assistant wades in to rescue stranded sheep after huge downpours at Teddington, Banks Peninsula.<br \/>\nPhoto: Supplied\n<\/p>\n<p>A Banks Peninsula farm worker had to swim stranded sheep to safety after huge downpours at Teddington.<\/p>\n<p>More than <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/national\/587022\/live-weather-floods-close-roads-around-banks-peninsula-as-downpour-moves-south\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">280mm of rain has fallen<\/a> on parts of the Banks Peninsula from Sunday night to Tuesday morning. MetService meteorologist Silvia Martino said persistent rain was expected for much of the rest of Tuesday. An orange heavy rain warning was in until 6pm<\/p>\n<p>Farmer Sir David Carter said more than 250mm of rain fell overnight at his property.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The rain gauge was overflowing this morning. I&#8217;ve never seen so much rain and I&#8217;ve been farming here for 40 years.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Carter said paddocks were flooded and trees were are down, which left him stranded on the farm.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We moved stock to higher ground last night because we knew this was coming, but a farm assistant had to swim nine sheep to safety at 6.30am.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/4JT2POR_Media_7_jfif.jpeg\" width=\"1050\" height=\"787\" alt=\"Farm worker rescues stranded sheep after huge downpours on Banks Peninsula, 17 February 2026.\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"photo-captioned__information\">\nFarm worker rescues stranded sheep after huge downpours at Teddington, Banks Peninsula.<br \/>\nPhoto: Supplied\n<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;d say there will be slips on the hills but we won&#8217;t know the extent of the damage until the rain stops.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He said he didn&#8217;t think they had had stock losses.<\/p>\n<p>Opawa flooding<\/p>\n<p>In Christchurch, Stuart Payne, an Opawa resident of 35 years, told RNZ it was the second-worst flooding he&#8217;d seen in the area.<\/p>\n<p>He said the response from council for the city&#8217;s metropolitan areas was delayed, despite flooding in various parts of the city, while most of the focus was currently on the Banks Peninsula.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/4JT2WCT_1000011726_jpg.jpeg\" width=\"1050\" height=\"787\" alt=\"Flooding in Opawa, Christchurch, 17 February 2026.\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"photo-captioned__information\">\nFlooding in Opawa, Christchurch.<br \/>\nPhoto: Supplied \/ Stuart Payne\n<\/p>\n<p>He also questioned why the region hadn&#8217;t been placed in a state of emergency. No declaration had been made by 10am on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Maybe they&#8217;ve been caught out.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Payne sent RNZ photos from his drive on Fifield Terrace, where surface flooding has covered the road.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s like a massive lake.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/4JT2WDB_1000011725_jpg.jpeg\" width=\"1050\" height=\"787\" alt=\"Flooding in Opawa, Christchurch, 17 February 2026.\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"photo-captioned__information\">\nFlooding in Opawa, Christchurch.<br \/>\nPhoto: Supplied \/ Stuart Payne\n<\/p>\n<p>His property was raised and wasn&#8217;t at risk of flooding, he said.<\/p>\n<p>At 8.40am, Christchurch City Council published a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsline.ccc.govt.nz\/news\/story\/wet-weather-hits-christchurch-and-banks-peninsula\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">list of city road closures on its website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/4JT2O8V_Media_10_jfif.jpeg\" width=\"1050\" height=\"787\" alt=\"Parts of Richardson Terrace in Woolston, Christchurch, are covered by floodwaters.\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"photo-captioned__information\">\nParts of Richardson Terrace in Woolston, Christchurch, are covered by floodwaters.<br \/>\nPhoto: RNZ \/ Rachel Graham\n<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/4JT2NXH_1000032677_jpg.jpeg\" width=\"1050\" height=\"591\" alt=\"Flooding on Riverlaw Terrace, Christchurch,\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"photo-captioned__information\">\nFlooding on Riverlaw Terrace, Christchurch.<br \/>\nPhoto: Supplied \/ Richard Tilbury\n<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/radionz.us6.list-manage.com\/subscribe?u=211a938dcf3e634ba2427dde9&amp;id=b3d362e693\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Farm assistant wades in to rescue stranded sheep after huge downpours at Teddington, Banks Peninsula. Photo: Supplied A&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287427,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[48,47,42,43,49,46,44,45,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-287426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287426","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=287426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}