Peter Meredith on New Zealand

Peter said that a shortage of water was not a problem this time. The first 4 weeks were OK but then the North Island was hit by cyclone Gabrielle. This brought a lot of trees down. Once the trees were gone the sandy soil quickly formed avalanches which washed away roads. They couldn't get out of village for 4 days because of the road situation.

A lot of pylons were also damaged because of wind. They had no power for 3 days and had to get water out of the storage tank with bucket as the pump wasn’t working.

As it had been very wet the water table was already high meaning that there was a lot of flooding. All the roads north of Auckland were blocked and water in Auckland was 4 feet deep. The authorities couldn't pump the water away as it just came back because of the high water table.

But Peter and Bridget felt they were lucky as they still had cylinder gas for the stove and the barbeque. Some of their friends were without power 14 days.

Eventually went Whangārei about  60 Kilometres north. It started raining again but they did manage to get home. So they went to bowling club for dinner but got blocked in there. The Civil Defence said they had to stay there as the roads were too dangerous. After 2.5 hours they were allowed to leave and walked the 15 minutes home.

Then the Civil Defence came knocking on the door asking for volunteers to look after school children who were stranded at school. Peter volunteered but they weren’t needed. They did take blankets to the local school as a lot of people were staying there.

The only damage to their house was fence that was flattened. But that was quickly sorted out through the insurance company.

When asked about the impact on sheep Peter said that there are not as many sheep in the country these days. Those that are still reared are primarily sent to China. But he did say that of those still on farms there were lot of deaths caused by the storm.