Bethany Park Campground received nearly 500mm of rain between two recent storms. Photo: RNZ/Samantha Gee
Mud is still being scraped out from around caravans, vehicles and buildings in a Kaiteriteri campground, a week after heavy rain caused widespread flooding in the Tasman District.
Bethany Park Campground manager Roger Armstrong estimated the area received nearly 500 millimetres of rain between the two recent storms. The camp survived the first flood on 27 June unscathed, but last Friday was a different story.
He said several gullies at the back of the Kaiteriteri property fed into a creek that ran through the campsite.
"All three main gullies had big slips, and there was timber, pine trees amongst that and they basically dammed up, until they burst. It was the bursting of those slips that caused the excessive amount of water down the creek.
"Had we not had the slips, I think we probably would have managed it quite happily."
The flood left 150mm of mud across parts of the Bethany Park Campground. Photo: RNZ
Once the water receded, it left about 150mm of mud across the lower parts of the camp, with more timber and silt up the back of the site. A week on, mud was still being scraped up and carted away, with the clean-up likely to take another few weeks.
Armstrong said six cabins and about three occupied caravans had water through them, and one cabin was likely a write-off, but no other buildings were affected. Of about 50 caravans stored at the camp, more than half had been damaged.
'Disaster soup'
One couple, Marguerite Besier and Roger Croft, had to be rescued from their caravan, as floodwaters rose last Friday.
Besier said she watched the puddles outside slowly get bigger, then the water started to rise rapidly and the couple knew they had to leave.
Croft opened the door and stepped down into water that was almost waist deep, telling Besier she needed to follow him.
"Then, my wedding dress from 1979 bobbed past, with the freezer swirling around behind it, spewing out all our frozen goods," she said. "'Here goes my pack of spinach, oh, there goes my soup', all going round and round and round in a great big whirlpool in the middle of the awning, along with lots of debris, grass and sticks and logs.
Marguerite Besier and Roger Croft had to be rescued from their caravan by a frontend loader. Photo: RNZ/Samantha Gee
"It was just like a great big disaster soup."
The couple's Huntaway cross dog - a rescue named Jack - jumped into the water and swam to a frontend loader that had come to their aid, and the couple followed him into the bucket.
Many of the camp's other residents stood atop a nearby bank, watching the rescue and cheering when the couple made it to safety.
They've since stayed at a cabin at the camp, and have been inundated with clothing, food and support from friends and other residents.
Besier was gobsmacked when she saw their caravan the next day, surrounded by mud. Their insurance company has yet to assess it, but she suspects it and their car will be a write-off.
The couple moved from Canterbury to Kaiteriteri in February, with the plan to retire in a tiny home in the region Besier considers her tūrangawaewae (place where one belongs).
Despite the rain, that's still their plan. Their tiny home will be ready within the next month and, with additional re-inforcing, will be put on the same site their caravan was.
Besier was pragmatic about adapting to cope with future weather events.
"The only way we can do it is by working together and helping each other," she said. "It's the only way we're going to survive, just accept that this is how it is.
"This is our swansong, this is where we want to be."
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