A boy walks past an uprooted tree in front of the Miami Beach Surf Lifesaving Club in the aftermath of Cyclone Alfred on the Gold Coast on March 8, 2025. Photo: DAVID GRAY / AFP
A New Zealander living in Brisbane says the past week has been long, stressful and anxiety inducing as she hunkered down at home and waited for the cyclone.
Sophia Ducker-Jones, who lives in New Farm, said she and her flatmates bought up the last remaining tins of beans and tuna at their local supermarket last Sunday, filled the bath with water and topped up their power banks.
"We were really well prepared, and then it just became a waiting game, which was anxiety inducing in itself, like I work from home and I've tried to get a week's work done within a few days 'cause you just don't know if the cyclone is going to hit that day and when we're going to lose power."
Ducker-Jones said on Friday night the winds were strong and horrendous, but on Saturday it had rained heavily.
She said she felt pretty lucky she had not lost power, but all her friends had.
"So I have offered to everyone, like, if they need a stove to use, they're welcome to come over, but then it's simple things like they've tried to come over and then their garage doesn't open - you forget how much power you use."
A lifeguard tower is surrounded by water on Main Beach that has been damaged by record-breaking waves caused by the outer fringe of Tropical Cyclone Alfred on the Gold Coast on 7 March. Photo: AFP/DAVID GRAY
While on the Gold Coast, Bree-Arna Harris told RNZ the sky was "electric blue" overnight.
"All of the neighbourhoods around us have lost power," she said.
Harris added the supermarkets were "chaos".
"No milk, no eggs, bread, toilet paper. It feels like Covid all over again."
And while Harris said there was not a lot of panic about the now ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred, she said there was a lot of "stupid curiosity".
"People are just putting themselves in danger to go see all the damage."
A damaged home is pictured after a tree uprooted by strong winds crashed into the structure in the suburb of Elanora as Cyclone Alfred passed near the Gold Coast on March 8, 2025. Photo: AFP/DAVID GRAY
Stephanie Grech was not as lucky as Harris and had lost power late last night.
"We haven't got power still. A lot of houses on the Gold Coast don't have any power, but we were fortunate enough to buy a generator."
Grech said there was a lot of rain in the Gold Coast overnight.
"Today's not as bad. We still have gusts of strong wind and rain, but it's lighter rain, so nowhere near as bad as it was last night."
A damaged yacht that was swept away by the waves rests at Point Danger on the southern end of the Gold Coast on March 7, 2025. Photo: DAVID GRAY / AFP
However, there was a silver lining for Grech, who said she had been able to spend some quality time with her whānau - and got to have a barbecue for breakfast.
"It's actually been quite nice - haven't had any Wi-Fi or internet, so they haven't been on their devices - they've actually been hanging out with us."
While further north in Noosa, Steven Field - who moved from Dunedin in January - said Alfred had been underwhelming.
"To be honest, the cyclone didn't really hit Noosa.
"I mean, we had some strong wind gusts, but yeah, without all those news articles and stuff, you wouldn't have thought anything about it."
New Zealand to the rescue
Fire and Emergency New Zealand confirmed it had received a request for support from the Queensland State Government, and deputy national commander Brendan Nally said Fire and Emergency were planning to deploy an Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) team to the state.
Foreign Minister Winston Peters had said on X more than 60 USAR personnel would be going.
Also on X, Defence Minister Judith Collins said the Defence Force would ensure New Zealand personnel could get to Queensland to help.
Emojis and hashtags in display of solidarity
Not only was New Zealand's offer to help Australia announced on social media, but both the Foreign and Defence Minister emphasised our special relationship with a show of digital expressions.
Peters chose a golden handshake emoji - a symbol for agreement, congratulations, making a deal, but also for representing two groups of people or individuals who are different but can share something similar. He had also tagged his Australian counterpart Senator Penny Wong.
Meanwhile Collins had signed off her post #WorkingTogether.
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