From the air in a company helicopter, Cameron Taylor quickly realised the scale of the devastation. The Taylor Corporation pakchouse can be seen completely flooded and surrounded by debris. Photo: Supplied
Two years after Cyclone Gabrielle, much of the Hawke's Bay clean-up is complete, but orchardists like Cameron Taylor from Taylor Corporation know it will take many years to fully recover.
The packhouse has been cleared of silt and mud - all 22 million litres of it - and is now back into its second harvest, while new apple varieties are being planted on orchard land left bare.
"When I first walked in, it was over my gumboot, so just under the knee," Taylor said of the 30,000 square metre packhouse and coolstore site on Waiohiki, near Napier.
They needed three months to clear the mud and all the latest high-tech automated equipment, just two years old, also had to be scrapped.
Cameron Taylor's proud they got the packhouse up and running within a year of the cyclone. Photo: Gianina Schwanecke / Country Life
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Yet when Country Life paid a visit, the packhouse looked brand new, with equipment being readied for the upcoming apple harvest, Taylor Corporation's second since the cyclone hit in February 2022.
"It's back to normal," Taylor said. "We've kept a couple of lines from the cyclone and it's more to be proud that we've got going.
"What we've achieved, no-one actually believed we could getting it going within a year, the packhouse."
The fourth-generation orchardist said it was a big decision to rebuild, knowing it would likely leave the company with generations of debts.
"We're knowing what we've lost, it's going to be generations before we get that back. It's not my kids, it's not my debt now, it's probably going to be my grandkids."
Picking had just begun at Taylor Corporation, when Cyclone Gabrielle struck. Photo: Supplied
For the Taylor family, the cyclone struck at the "worst possible" time, as they had just started picking that season's crop.
"When the fruit's on the tree, you have no insurance. When it's in a bin, you've got insurance."
Wanting to support the 300-strong staff, some of whom had also lost their homes in the cyclone, is one of the reasons Taylor decided to continue. Having Government support through to access to cheap loans also helped get them through the initial restoration.
Taylor believed their $30 million insurance claim was the largest ever received by insurer FMG - a milestone he wasn't especially proud of.
The 30,000m2 packhouse was just two years old when the cyclone hit, and filled with the latest and most high-tech gear which has had to be replaced. Photo: Gianina Schwanecke / Country Life
Although it was business as usual at the packhouse these days, replanting efforts were still underway on the many orchard blocks, where they had more than a quarter of the trees die, suffocated by silt.
Across Hawke's Bay, about 600-hectares of trees have had to be pulled out.
In some parts, the silt left behind was only 300 millimetres high and in other parts it was more than two metres.
Taylor said there were different types of silt - the Ngaruroro River left behind more sandy silt, while silt from the Tūtaekurī River was more clay like.
Clearing a hectare of silt from the orchards cost about $60-70,000, with Taylor eventually giving up, as they were "going to go broke just clearing the silt", some of which sat on long term lease land. No-one knew how the trees would respond.
They had tree deaths in areas where silt was cleared, while in others where it was not, large cracks seemed to allow enough oxygen in for the trees to recover.
They’ve had over a quarter of the trees die, and are still replanting - last year they replanted about 22-ha and this year they hope to do about 40-ha. Photo: Gianina Schwanecke / Country Life
"It's going to be years to plant up," Taylor said of those trees they needed to replace. Last year, they planted about 22ha and this year, they hope to cover 40ha.
Replanting gave them an opportunity to plant new, more desirable varieties and tailor the orchard set up to automation.
Cameron Taylor next to one of the company's new orchard blocks where they are growing a range of new apple varieties. Photo: Gianina Schwanecke / Country Life
This included Prevar varieties like Sassy, as well as some of their own. Taylor still saw a future in the industry, especially with exports.
"To be in this industry, you have to see the positive.
"Yeah, it's real hard times now, but as you can see, we've got there."
He said the major challenge would be capital restraints over the next few years, which would limit development.
"It's going to be hard times, because of capital. We've got to attract money from outside, overseas money or something like that to go.
"The cyclones kicked us back six years. These [orchards] were designed with robotic tractors in there and we were in trials.
"What it's done is the cyclone has taken all your money, so now those are years away."
