{"id":300068,"date":"2026-02-24T17:32:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T17:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/300068\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T17:32:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T17:32:11","slug":"tractor-track-helps-hawkes-bay-rural-children-manage-post-cyclone-gabrielle-anxiety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/300068\/","title":{"rendered":"Tractor Track helps Hawke\u2019s Bay rural children manage post Cyclone Gabrielle anxiety"},"content":{"rendered":"

Turnbull said the launch brought back memories of the days after the cyclone, when the school became a community hub, and she found herself coordinating people, helicopters and essential aid.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first days were all about survival,\u201d she told Hawke\u2019s Bay Today.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were really worried about our stock \u2026 we\u2019d lost a lot of lambs, and we didn\u2019t know what the next days would look like.”<\/p>\n

With no communication for days and no power for nearly a month, families relied heavily on each other. <\/p>\n

Her eldest daughter Charlotte, now 5, spent those weeks roaming between adults, nurses, council workers and neighbours.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was so little, so for her it was a fun time … But for older kids it was a different story.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JessicaJessica Turnbull with her daughters Charlotte, 5, and Matilda, 2, enjoying the tractors after the show. Photo \/ Rafaella Melo<\/p>\n

Parent Samantha Mcclinchie, who also lives locally, said anxiety had been one of the lasting emotional impacts for her three children, now aged 12, 8 and 7.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we have real bad weather or real bad rain, I can see the trauma on their faces … they worry something\u2019s going to happen again,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Mcclinchie said the Tractor Trek programme felt uplifting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe kids were interacting and loving it. It was good to see locals get involved as well\u201d<\/p>\n

Her eldest daughter, Zoe, said the programme was \u201cexciting\u201d and highlighted one key lesson she took away.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf someone or something made you angry, just calm down and isolate yourself if you need to,\u201d Zoe said.<\/p>\n

\"SamanthaSamantha Mcclinchie with her children Mason, left, and Zoe, who say bad weather still triggers worries three years after Cyclone Gabrielle. Photo \/ Rafaella Melo<\/p>\n

T\u016btira School has just 23 students, and principal Simon Yarrall said the cyclone\u2019s impact remained visible.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing a small rural school, we\u2019ve got to go into town to join sports teams and events. Pre-cyclone it was about a 25-minute drive, and now sometimes it\u2019s an hour and a half with all the roadworks,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso, with our bus run, some days the bus is on time, some days it\u2019s late. It just makes things really challenging for children.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yarrall said the Tractor Trek\u2019s message was essential.<\/p>\n

\u201cNationwide, we\u2019re seeing an increase in mental health struggles in children, and this gives them a starting point,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnderstanding their emotions helps them explain what they\u2019re feeling, which makes it easier for teachers and parents to support them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Each school visit begins with an interactive show using puppets, humour and simple neuroscience to teach children how anxiety works in the brain and body. <\/p>\n

They learn to notice and name feelings, calm their bodies, and challenge unhelpful thoughts. <\/p>\n

Afterwards, students climb onto the tractors and explore the machinery that brought the programme to them.<\/p>\n

\"CatCat Levine and her team deliver an interactive anxiety-education show at T\u016btira School. Photo \/ Rafaella Melo<\/p>\n

Think and Be Me founder Cat Levine said the Tractor Trek blends fun with mental health education in a way that resonates with rural communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cStatistics say one in four children will struggle with mental health before 18. Half of those concerns begin before age 14,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, this is really a preventative mental health education, and we want to take these lessons out of the counselling room into the classroom.\u201d<\/p>\n

Levine first toured with tractors in 2020 and later delivered a four-year mental wellbeing project in Northland funded by Rotary.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s Hawke\u2019s Bay tour is free for schools, supported by donations including $5000 from Hawke\u2019s Bay Children\u2019s Holding Trust and $10,000 from an Auckland donor. Volunteer tractor drivers also pay for their own fuel and accommodation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt costs about $4000 per school for the resources we leave behind,\u201d Levine said. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut this community is special to us. We didn\u2019t want them to miss out because we\u2019d missed out on so much funding. We still wanted to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Tractor Track visits 20 rural schools, delivering a free anxiety show and $4000 in resources. Photo \/ Rafaella Melo<\/p>\n

After Monday\u2019s launch at T\u016btira, the Tractor Trek will continue throughout the region, visiting schools from Eskdale and Westshore through to Flaxmere, Haumoana, Lucknow, Omahu and others before finishing at Sherenden and Districts School on March 6.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Turnbull said the launch brought back memories of the days after the cyclone, when the school became a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300069,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3404,1561,1061,33959,33960,1976,34888,9554,111,43,139,69,3117,3175,22974,29687],"class_list":["post-300068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-anxiety","tag-bay","tag-children","tag-cyclone","tag-gabrielle","tag-hawkes","tag-helps","tag-manage","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-post","tag-rural","tag-track","tag-tractor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300068","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=300068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}