Sludgey-like a cow pat, stinky, and easier to move with your hands than a spade - that's how one Gisborne resident describes the silt that burried his prized backyard garden the night Cyclone Gabrielle struck.
Hugo McGuinness is on Marian Drive - a lovely stretch of road where houses back onto the Waimata river.
A week on from the storm, the street now has several yellow-stickered homes and at least one that can't be lived in.
Mr McGuinness and his neighbours have had diggers in to push the silt back into the river - he gave reporter Amy Williams a tour of his backyard.
