There’s been a lot of reflecting over the past week, looking through photos that I took and never looked back at. Never saw the news as we didn’t have any power or reception. Never even read the books and articles that we were in, it just wasn’t something I was quite ready to relive until the big anniversary prompted a walk down memory lane.
The night our lives changed forever was 10 years ago tonight - the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that rearranged our whole property - roads, fences, buildings, rivers - and uplifted our land a world record breaking 12 metres where the Papatea fault ruptured. If you’ve spent time at Middle Hill it’s highly likely you’ve already heard the story, but here is again!
November 11th 2016 - We’d had a busy day at Clarence River Rafting packing up for the second trip of the season, squeezing in a quick dive for crays and paua at our usual spot down the coast. I came home to my cottage (which was at what is now the entrance to the bike park) and enjoyed a fun night with some of my greatest friends visiting. We scrambled up the grassy hillside behind the cottage, blissfully unaware of how much the landscape would change just a couple of nights later.
November 13th 2016 - We camped up for the night at Quail Flat, opting for the more cosy spot up on the bank among the poplars. As guides we always slept outside, choosing a nice spot under a big cliff that particular evening. After a big feed and campfire yarns we tucked in for the night, falling asleep easily with the gentle sound of the river below.
I woke up already on my feet and scrambling away from the crumbling cliff. The ground was alive! Trees smacked together, cracks opened at our feet and liquifaction emerged on the riverbed below. We held on to each other in an effort to keep upright - this was a proper earthquake for sure! The violent shaking continued for two minutes, enough time to wonder if this was it, “the big one” we’ve all grown up aware of.
November 14th 2016 - The rest of the night was spent gathering up all the clients and relocating to a big open paddock where we threw a tarp down and got some kind of sleep between the rumbling aftershocks. Sat phone calls were made, all next of kin was contacted except mine - Clarence was completely offline. We were woken at 6am by the local high country farmer landing beside our makeshift camp in his helicopter, checking if we were ok. A plan was made to raft down to their place, Muzzle Station, to reassess the situation.
We waited there for a couple of days as the river was a maze of landslides, new lakes and falling rock. All the helicopers were busy apparently, evacuating travellers from Kaikoura. It was very surreal watching the news on the (miraculously unbroken) TV at the most remote homestead in NZ, entirely off grid yet connected. I still hadn’t managed to contact home, and yet insane images of the damage in our valley were already all over the news. It was a scary time!
November 15th 2016 - Finally a lovely helicopter pilot from Nelson stopped by and asked if we needed a ride home. Yes please! He dropped me off first, right on the driveway of my parents house. It was a crazy experience flying in to such a changed landscape - new hills, empty ponds left high and dry from the uplift and destoyed buildings - including my beloved cottage. Miraculously one of the only buildings to survive was the rough old homestead, despite now sitting a whopping 10 metres higher than before. My parents looked completely shellshocked, and tears of relief streamed when I stepped out of the chopper.
The following days (and weeks/ months?!) were spent picking up the pieces, attempting to get our heads around the magnitude of what had happened. There was no time to process though, with deer fences and water lines needing urgent repair. No electricity for 3 or 4 weeks but that was the least of our worries, country people know how to get by with candles and a cooking fire!
We had no idea what was going on outside our bubble, but learnt that the Papatea Fault had ruptured right through our farm, destroying the woolshed, deer shed and my cottage, and lifting the land up 6 to 12 metres along the line of limestone outcrops (seems obvious that was a fault in hindsight!). The river was a raging monster, with an insane new Grade 5+ (super gnarly!!!) rapid where the fault had crossed. If you’ve had a swim at our epic swimming hole, you’ll know where I’m talking about (it’s not a Grade % rapid any more but has been through many transformations since!).
A trip to the coast revealed more shocking sights.Bull kelp strung over rocks, massive sandy flat beaches where waves had rolled in just days earlier. We walked among the rocks we’d been diving around before the raft trip, spotting stranded sea creatures suddenly a long way from their watery home. It was wild!
We were now '“the Karamea of the east”, living at the new end of the road and cut off from our home town of Kaikoura - giant slips covered State Highway 1 and the Papatea fault had ripped the road up like a piece of paper. It took a bit of getting used to but we eventually appreciated our quiet country road that usually has streams of traffic rolling past round the clock.
The mountain we had to climb seemed overwhelmingly enormous, but within days the help started to flood in. It started with deliveries of home baking and frozen meals, prepared in country kitchens as far away as Southland and flown up to us in private planes landing in bumpy paddocks. A convoy of rugby team mates in hiluxes acted as a portable free supermarket, bringing in the much needed supplies. Neighbours who hadn’t suffered as much damage rushed in to tail lambs, connect water and help pick up the pieces.
Volunteers turned up from all over the country, long before the authorities were even looking in our direction! Broken fences were taken out and put back up, the deer shed was rebuilt within weeks and the woolshed came a few months later. We had dairy farmers from the Waikato, fencers flying in from Hawkes Bay, the Golden Bay Fencing team, Tim Dodge carting his big digger all the way down from the North Island to fix the tracks. Family friends, friends of friends, total strangers and new friends in the making, camping on the lawn and rebuilding the farm. That was the most incredible thing to come from the whole experience, a debt that we can never repay and will appreciate forever.
Well done if you’ve made it this far!!
