(PENSIVE MUSIC)
Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air.
www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2023
(THUNDER RUMBLES)
- I had taken the warning seriously.
We had prepared. We'd bought a gas stove, and we'd bought a generator,
and I'd filled the bath.
- And we were joking around, like,
'Oh, did you tie down your furniture?'
And I'm like, 'No, I didn't. Maybe I should. Should I?'
Last time, it wasn't that bad.
- The trees were the main concern, cos it was so, so crazy — the wind.
- And then power went out, and we're like, 'Oh, OK, that's cosy,'
and put some candle lights.' I looked for torches.
- So about 10 past 10,
my friend, she basically said, 'Shit, my house is flooding.'
And I think that was kind of the start.
- I didn't think for a second that...
what was coming was gonna happen.
- There's, like, a river under my house.
And it was like, holy shit.
- I saw the water coming down our steps like a waterfall.
I went out with no shoes and just my undies and a raincoat
and then started digging.
And then all of a sudden, you could just hear the slip start,
and it was just rumbling down the hill.
And that's when we, like, looked at each other, and it was just like,
'Go, go, go!'
- Through the toilet window, I saw there was lots of people running.
Like, I didn't want to be nosy, but I was like, 'Something's happening.'
- Went out there to have a look and just greeted with carnage
across the street, eh.
There was a completely flattened house across the road.
It's just kind of like a 'holy shit, wow' moment.
- And while we were watching,
and there was a lot of commotion happening,
another house came down with a lot of noise.
(SOMBRE MUSIC)
- It's just the sound of thunderous shaking
and just seeing silhouettes just rubbing past the window
and all the glass was cracking and thinking like, 'This might be it.'
- It was the fear in my friends' faces that you knew
that whatever he had seen, you wouldn't wanna go back to
and that you just wanted to get the hell out of the area, really.
- Went outside; it was filthy dark
and just wet as.
And four of the little cabins completely smoked to smithereens.
You know, the big tree smashed through the door
and went out the other side sort of thing,
5m away from where I was sleeping.
- The firefighter started telling us, 'You better evacuate.'
And then we were like, 'OK, maybe we have to get out of here ourselves.'
- At that point, we really just grabbed the kids and left.
(DISTANT SIREN BLARES)
- Went into the pantry and pulled out my cash,
and as I was climbing out the window, I looked down,
and on the right was my guitar.
So I grabbed the guitar, and that was it. I was out the window.
And, yeah, I was just pumped to be...
not in that pile of rubble.
- The worst part of it was when we were told, 'You've got to hurry.'
And my husband said to them, 'My wife is in bed.
'You go and tell her to get out of bed right now.' (CHUCKLES)
- What we escaped with that night was a mobile phone, kids' pyjamas,
a raincoat, a head torch.
And that's basically it from our whole lives.
- I grabbed two towels. I grabbed my pyjama pants.
I was like, 'But I need an activity while we are evacuated.'
So I grabbed wood carving tools, a wooden spoon,
and I grabbed a very sharp knife.
During the night, everyone was very stressed,
and I was just sitting on the floor and finishing my spoon.
So I got— The only possession that I had was this wooden spatula —
the flipper, yeah. (CHUCKLES)
(TENSE MUSIC)
- The one precious thing that I grabbed was my wedding ring.
To me, that was the world.
- I was like, 'I need my teddy bear
'that I've had since my first day of life.'
And I think what that is, is it's consistency,
because there are so many uncertainties at the moment.
Late last night, I woke up, and I couldn't get back to sleep
(CHUCKLES) until I found my teddy bear, and I tucked it under my arm,
and I went back to sleep. Sad, but true. (CHUCKLES)
- You buy a house; you get a mortgage.
Your house is always inferior.
Someone's got a bigger house; someone's got a better view;
they're in a better position, and that becomes a thing in your life.
You always want more.
- We do all these things because we think
that we want financial security.
But, actually, the reality is there was absolutely no security.
It's now a bit more of a burden than anything else. (CHUCKLES)
Sometimes I grieve my house.
It's almost like a break-up.
Someone that you love that you know that you can't be with any more.
So I have thought a lot about what it is to walk away from that
and then what it is to regather.
(REFLECTIVE MUSIC)
- One of my biggest fears was that friends and family
might not wanna live out here any more.
So I thought, what happens if our friends move away?
And so far, everybody still wants to live here.
So this has just brought us so much closer
and made us stronger in the loss.
(BIRD CALLS, INSECTS CHIRP)
- I liked everything about that house — the community, my neighbours,
the way I spent my time there.
That house was just a very nice place to be.
But I have to be careful not to fall back in the old habits,
because I can pick up everything exactly how I did it
and buy exactly what I had and live my life exactly how I used to live it
or just do things different.
And I'm trying to be aware that, like, this is something new I can do.
- The weirdest thing is looking back at pictures
of what was in your house — your everyday possessions,
simple, simple things, and just thinking, where are they?
How can so many possessions just disappear?
Yeah. One minute you've got everything,
and the next minute, it's just gone. Just totally gone.
But there's no sadness about that.
They're just items that I used in a previous life,
and I've bought items since,
and it's not brought any joy to me, really.
Where I can go for a swim and the feeling it gives me
is just way more than anything you could ever buy.
(POIGNANT MUSIC)
Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air.
www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2023