Cyclone Gabrielle – Gretchen Absolom

This is Darryl Tremain for the Hawke’s Bay Knowledge Bank. Today is the 22nd October 2024, and I’m speaking with Gretchen Absolom from Rissington. So when you heard the cyclone was coming, what did you think would happen and how prepared were you?

Gretchen Absolom: I had plenty of food in the house because my family were coming from Singapore [a] few days later to help get their grandson to varsity. So I had an abundance of food and I always have water in the fridge and have always got animal food around, so yes, I was prepared for it but I had no idea that it was going to be as bad. And ‘bout 6 pm I was speaking to a friend up the road. She rang me, and it was so windy the trees were almost blowing over. I mean, it was really windy and the wind didn’t stop; and then noisy … the night was noisy. I didn’t sleep, and my cat didn’t sleep which was interesting. At daylight I got up, and I looked out onto the flat paddocks. Completely covered in water, completely.

Across the road, the Soldiers Settlement Road?

It was like, completely covered in water and silt. And we had no phone and no power, but when you live rurally you cope without power for a [while] – I mean, you just learn to cope; it’s not a major. But we didn’t plan on thirty-five days without power … we had no power for thirty-five days.

But you weren’t here for thirty-five days, were you?

No, no, because I’d had a fracture, an accident, and I was in a sling. And the family couldn’t get hold of me … no communication. Then on the, I think it was the Friday, I was sitting on a chair having a peanut butter sandwich with my cat at my feet; sitting looking out, sniffing the different smell in the air and a helicopter circled over. And I thought, ‘We’ve had enough helicopters, enough photographs are taken.’ And it kept circling; the next minute it landed on the front lawn and my son-in-law from Taupo, Tim, jumps out with a generator and a can of petrol and waves to me. And of course, I burst into tears. [Chuckle] I burst into tears, so he stayed the night. He said, “You’re coming back to Taupo.” I said, “No, I’m not. Someone might need to stay here.”

‘Cause you were high and dry at the house – you were surrounded by water.

Yes.

And was that the Mangaone Stream?

The Mangaone River.

And the bridge had gone?

But I didn’t know that initially; I didn’t know that. But a shepherd, Jason, called in and he just said, “I’m checking on you – are you all right?” And he said, “There’s no bridge, it’s gone.” Well, that was unbelievable. Unbelievable. And he was stranded, he couldn’t get home to Glengarry Road. So I said, you know, “You’re welcome to stay, and I’ve got food.” He said, “No, no, I’m on a roll. I’m on a roll.” But anyway, Tim arrived and you know, he said, “You’re coming with us.” And I said, “No, I might need to do something.” He said, “Well, you won’t be any use with your arm in a sling.” And I said, “Okay; my cat.” And he said, “Bring the cat.” [Chuckles] So, we went to cook some steak which was still in the fridge, and mushrooms, and you wouldn’t believe it – the barbecue wouldn’t work – I mean, Murphy’s Law. Something had happened to the regulator – nothing to do with the cyclone. But I mean, seriously … it was hilarious, it took about three hours to boil a little thing of water. So, anyway; who needs a hot drink? It’s okay, you just get on with it. Yes, so I was evacuated and went to Taupo, and I was there for six weeks.

So, what was it like when you came back? Because the surroundings and everything were quite different when you came home.

Totally. The Bailey Bridge was in situ at that point.

On the Mangaone River?

Yes. That was so … it was heartbreaking; absolutely heartbreaking. Mind you, I had seen it all on TV, and I had photographs so I did have some idea. But you think you do until you actually see it in reality.

So the family brought me home. And I had a forty-foot container full of precious furniture, and my life was in that container. And I’d noticed very early on when I was in Taupo, the container wasn’t where it used to be, and no one would say anything to me. But the long and short of it is the container washed three-quarters of a mile down the river and was on an angle. Thank goodness for that. So when the family from Taupo brought me home they went and undid the doors, and a neighbour had cut the lock and done all that, and the water all poured out. But initially it looked okay, but it wasn’t, so Tonia and Tim were transporting stuff off to the dump. So no, it was surreal. It was actually surreal.

I think in Hawke’s Bay we’re prepared for tsunamis and earthquakes but not cyclone. And where I used to have a beautiful garden … completely ruined. Completely ruined. Subsequently there’s nothing there now, it’s just completely gone. I lost ‘bout a hundred and twenty-year-old redwood tree, because that was where they put the causeway in and the trucks and all the traffic were going right over the roots, and it died. But there was no silt on it because the local fire brigade had hosed off all the silt. And an arborist later looked at it and said no, it was all the roots; ‘cause the roots were quite on the surface.

Was that because they were putting the temporary bridge in?

The causeway to allow …

The causeway to get onto the bridge.

Well, no, initially it was put there and there was a punt so people from upcountry could come in so far and pick up people or supplies or whatever.

And then I had two one hundred and twenty-two year old London plane trees that were planted for Edward and Alexandra’s coronation. So on the 9th August last year they would have been – I think I’ve got this right – one hundred and twenty-two years old. And they came into leaf, and then they died. They were the most amazing trees, and for a while they were the only things that were standing. And then of course they had to be cut out, and that was done; but then people came and stole all the firewood …

Oh, no!

… the Plane tree. Unbelievable! I mean if they’d come and said, “What are you doing with the wood?” You know, I would’ve said, “Perfectly fine”, but people …

Was there much stealing and looting going on, do you know?

Yes; the police were amazing … they were absolutely amazing. They came and checked. Yeah, there was, unfortunately. The houses in the bottom of the valley or below the hill there, they were looted. In fact there was a metal table that was welded to a wall or … you know, whatever, and it was sawn off and stolen. I mean, people were so traumatised; they didn’t need any of that.

So what about across the road here, which is Soldiers Settlement Road, that was all covered in silt and water, wasn’t it?

Yes. And it was absolutely amazing, there was no traffic. There was no traffic [chuckle] – loved it! [Chuckle] But that was all sorted, and I mean now it looks fabulous, because they’ve spent weeks and weeks working on it – you know, the council provided the diggers, and [it] was great.

And then across the road you’ve got the Absolom family cemetery?

Yes.

And that was inundated with silt; what happened there?

Metres … a friend … neighbour, who’s also a relation, phoned and he’d been over to check. That’s John Sanders – he’d been over to check, and he rang me in Taupo and he said, “It’s all fine.” And he dug all the silt off; he said, “Because you’re not here and you can’t do it, I will do that first” – before he did his own family.

Oh wow.

So, you know, it was amazing.

His family, are they not over here?

His family are at the Rissington cemetery.

Right, not the one across the road?

Yes, the Rissington cemetery, across the road.

Where your family is?

Yes. Yes. There’s his mother and his father and his sister over there. But they spent [a] long time digging the silt. And I felt guilty that I wasn’t here and I couldn’t do anything, but that’s the way it was … just what it was. But locals were really good; I mean as everyone is saying, people got to know people they’d never met before, ‘cause everyone just gets on with their lives now, and they don’t kind of check in on the neighbours, or “Hello, how are you?” They don’t even wave half the time.

Even in a rural community? ‘Cause I thought rural communities …

Used to be; not now. Used to be. But I think the cyclone brought a lot of people close together.

In Rissington itself, did they have a recovery effort, or an area recovery group, or ..?

They did, they did. ‘Bout four miles, five miles up the road there’s a local fire station, and they had that as a hub and they were operating from there.

Is that the Rissington fire station?

Yes, correct. But the original Rissington fire station was here, on this property, which my husband provided, and that is the shed that you can see standing.

Which is on the corner of Soldiers Settlement Road?

It’s back down a little bit. But it’s full of silt; and my family say, “You should just get rid of it.” I’ve got to process all that.

Fair enough. It’s sitting there fine at the moment.

Absolutely, absolutely. But as for my furniture…

In the container?

In the container – that’s piled up in a shed. It’s under that blue tarp. I’m working on it; my head’s working on it. But a lot of that … well, you would’ve seen it, the Guthrie-Smith furniture is destroyed; really destroyed.

Very sad.

Really. But it’s interesting, a lot of the older furniture was more damaged than the new, modern pieces, which I find [a] bit hard to get my head around.

I wonder why? Do you think it was the wood?

Don’t know … I don’t know.

Age?

We all get a little bit wobbly as we get older. [Chuckle] I’m not sure, Darryl, I don’t know. But family china, the family silver – because it was amazing how much salt [was] in the [water], which we, you know, assumed was fresh water – but all the silver went all covered in verdigris, and I just spent days and days and days polishing it, but it won’t come off; it’s all eaten into it.

So the water that was around here, was that contaminated with farm chemicals? It wasn’t sewerage or anything, was it?

Dead animals; there were a lot of dead animals. In fact a neighbour on the hill got leptospirosis, because he’d had a few cuts on him and … yeah, leptospirosis. He was taken to hospital in the middle of the night, and they believe that it was the dead animals floating down.

So did they lose a lot of animals out here?

Oh, yes, I think a lot of people don’t know how many animals …

Do you think that’s because they weren’t expecting the level of water so they didn’t move stock in the beginning?

I agree, and I don’t think people had a lot of time. But one thankful thing is that if the peak of the storm had come sort of afternoon, a lot of farmers would have been out on their bikes, Can-Ams, tractors, and they would’ve been caught. That would’ve been … I mean, when we flew up to Taupo in the chopper it was heartbreaking to see the land the way it was, what had happened. Just heartbreaking.

And your garden? You lost all the trees down the bottom …

Everything.

… by the Mangaone River … [Speaking together]

I lost everything in my garden. I’ve had the paddock sown and now it’s grass, which is not growing really well because I think [it] doesn’t like the silt. But it’s nothing; and as you know, it was a beautiful garden. Brick paths and paving, and you know, years and years and years of work gone. Nothing. Nothing.

And you lost fences as well, didn’t you?

All the fencing, and it was all new fencing. All gone. All gone.

And there was a subsidy, wasn’t there, to replace it? But not adequate?

No, because we’re now classed as a lifestyle block, so it wasn’t … no, not adequate at all.

So you’re in the Hastings District Council – have they been helpful in the recovery, you know, from your point of view? Did they do enough?

They provided some diggers to clear all the debris … yeah. That’s … yeah.

Another story.

Another story all right. Another story. Yes. Mmm …

So going forward, if it happened again would you be more prepared now than you were before? Or do you think it won’t happen again?

Well, we all hope and pray that it won’t happen again, but I don’t know how prepared you could be for something like that.

But you’re on a hill, so …

Yes.

… I’m assuming that you would never’ve expected to be surrounded by water …

No.

… to the level that you were.

No. But it’s interesting because Taupo daughter, Tonia, rang and she said, “Mum, Tim will come down, he’ll get you, you know, because there’s a cyclone predicted.” And I went, “It’s fine.” And she said, “But the hill might come down on top of you.” And I had never even thought of that. But the hill, it’s fine; I mean, absolutely fine.

‘Cause your house itself was high and dry, wasn’t it?

Absolutely. I mean, yes.

So if you hadn’t been taken out by Tim in the helicopter, you probably wouldn’t have got out?

No, no, wouldn’t have. Well, the Napier-Taupo road was closed. And my family came back from Singapore, and I mean, their plans went completely wrong because they got the punt over [the river] and came here and then they went and helped. They retrieved a few things … my gates, precious old gates, had washed off; lifted right off the gudgeons – I still call them dogs – but lifted off and gone down the river.

Did you get those back?

Yes, we recovered them, ‘cause son-in-law, Brian – big, strong, six-foot-six …

This is Sarah’s husband from Singapore?

Sarah’s husband … big strong American guy. [Chuckle] He found them further down the hill. I mean, how amazing. And they were beautiful, beautiful gates. And the gates actually, interestingly enough, were my father’s, and they were built by two builders; after the 1931 earthquake, those guys did a lot of work and rebuilt a lot of Napier.

Your father?

Yes, my father; his friends, Burlinghams … name of Burlingham, Harry and Roly. So I’m not as old as I look! [Chuckle] Harry and Roly Burlingham; so the gates were beautiful, and people used to comment on them.

And where were the gates originally?

Originally they started off in Taradale, then they went to Taupo, and then they came here. And I had one set on the front drive which was totally wiped out … couldn’t even come across that way because the creek realigned itself and took my bridge and everything with it. But no, Brian and Sarah found those. And Brian helped a few people do a few things, and then they went and picked some beautiful tomatoes which I had growing; went back into Napier and then flew down to Wellington with their son – they packed all his clothes and his computer and everything up, ‘cause he was living with me. He couldn’t get back here.

He was at university?

Hadn’t started. No, he hadn’t started. But that day before the cyclone, there were about five of Finn’s friends that came, and they were cooking dumplings and making hot chocolate and eating my fudge and doing all that sort of thing. And from the kitchen window, you could see the creek really high – it was really high, and the lower bridge on Soldiers Settlement Road … the first bridge … was overflowing when they arrived in the afternoon. That was before the cyclone, ‘cause of all the heavy rain we’d had. And I said, “You’re all welcome to stay, but if you want to get out you probably should think about going.” So Finn went off with them, and one guy said, “I’ve got a job in Havelock, I have to go”, so Finn went with him and he said, “See you later, GG, I’ll be back tonight.” Well, that didn’t happen, so fortunately it was lucky, he could stay on Apley Road with a friend. They had no access in and out which was a bit unfortunate because he’s a surgeon and, you know, he couldn’t get out to help people. But Finn was lucky, he stayed. He stayed.

How long did it take before they built the bridge across the Mangaone River? The temporary bridge?

The Bailey bridge? I think it was about two and a half weeks, or three weeks roundabout, from memory.

Okay. And prior to that people were punting across the river?

Yes, correct. In fact I had some precious photographs of the flood in … think it was 1927, and there were ropes going across and people were pulling boats across, so it has happened before.

I think that’s the third bridge, isn’t it, that [has] been lost to flood?

Oh, I didn’t know that it was the third; I would’ve said second, but you could be right. But the photographs of course were ruined in my container, so that was a lot of heartbreak.

Were they ruined beyond repair?

Yes, yes.

So they couldn’t even be digitally recovered or anything like that?

No, no. I mean the pages were all stuck together and silted and … I tried to open them, and you know, the paper … Fortunately, and you helped with the Guthrie-Smith glass slides which are sitting over there. Yes, they survived.

And they’re very delicate, so you’re very lucky they did survive.

Absolutely, absolutely. But a lot of Guthrie-Smith’s books were ruined. I’ve got some; and I’ve still got some that are smelling of silt, but I’ve kept them in a container. With one arm in a sling I had many bonfires in my copper out the back. [Chuckle] It was a permanent fire going, and lots of tears.

And you’re on your own so it makes it harder, doesn’t it?

Absolutely.

You’ve got no one to talk to or anything like that, about it.

True.

You have to do all of this on your own.

But the sad thing is that I’m an only child, and husband, Christopher, was an only child, and his mother was an only child; so everything – all the family treasures – ended up under my care until the cyclone.

Was there much Keeble archive in the container?

Some … absolutely. I’ve got my father’s rugby paraphernalia, and some of that was ruined; and all their photographs … yeah.

It is heartbreaking …

Oh, totally, ‘cause it can never be replaced..

So we just hope it doesn’t ever happen again.

Oh … absolutely. I mean, it can’t happen again.

We hope not, but you know … in the lap of the Gods, isn’t it, really?

Absolutely. But you know, I mean Eskdale also suffered badly. And people would say to me, “Oh, have you been to Eskdale and had a look?” I said, “No. I don’t need to be nosy and have a look, because there’s enough here to cope with; don’t need to go.” But then when daughter, Sarah, was home from Singapore over the winter we came back from Napier that way. And she taught at the Eskdale School for five years so she knew a lot of the houses and the people, and she’d go, “Oh, so-and-so lived there”, and, “oh so-and-so …” And so it was sad for her, also.

It’s very sad out at Eskdale; but it’s sad everywhere, you know …

Oh, totally.

… people are so lucky and had so many lucky escapes; but we’re lucky it wasn’t more people that died.

Well, I say that all the time, that we’re all still alive. I mean, you know, all the damage that’s been done but we’re all still alive. I think someone hurt a finger or wrecked a finger on one of the ropes on the punt, but if that’s all that happened that’s a blessing, isn’t it?

All of your neighbours were okay? You didn’t lose anybody up this way?

No. And I wasn’t here for those weeks, but you know, people got to know each other. But some of them were a little bit intrusive of other people’s property … walking through when they had no need to, and just walking around and looking at this, and looking at that. I’ll say no more about that.

There was looting out there, though, wasn’t there, to a large degree?

Yes, yes, yes. Actually, one day I had the long deck table full of china and all sorts of things which I’d been carrying in shopping bag by shopping bag, one arm at a time, one hand at a time. And the police arrived … “Just checking; just checking on you.” They were amazing. And they went off, and not long later they came back, and they said, “Oh, our car has had a stone go through it.” All the oil was leaking, so they came back. For a little bit of variety in my life I was painting … just some lines and … interesting, it’s actually in my bedroom. Have you seen it hanging? Just for a little bit of diversion …

It’s rather nice, actually.

Yeah, it’s cool; it’s black and white [chuckles] and it’s quite cool. And I said, “I can’t find any pencils.” And not long later, the police … two lovely ladies; I think one was from Turangi and the other was from Hamilton … arrived back with two pencils for me. [Chuckle] And they’d walked back ‘cause they had no car so.

So did they get picked up? The police came and picked them up?

Yes, they … they did. So I often think of them, because they obviously dumped a lot of oil out on the back drive; can still see where the oil was, so I think of those lovely ladies. [Chuckles] So I mean, things like that …

It does make the community pull together, doesn’t it?

Oh, totally.

Even in town, you know, people …

Connecting.

… and made sure the neighbours were okay and that sort of thing.

Yeah, yeah.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

No. I mean I probably haven’t expressed very well, but it’s still …

It’s just to capture your experience and how it impacted on you, and what happened, so that there’s a record going forward of what people went through.

Well, it’s still heartbreaking. You know, it’s still …

So we’re twenty months past the cyclone now and …

Yes, and it’s still very, very fresh. You know, it’s hard. Yeah, it’s hard. And for a long time I couldn’t walk down the back drive ‘cause we had no access out; because I couldn’t cope with it. Fifty plus years of making that garden and … nothing. But you know, the lovely thing is, when Sarah and Brian came from Singapore there was a little lamb running around. And so they picked it up, and they went, “Ooh, we can’t have it just wandering.” So the side fence was fine, and they put it over the hill and it became really friendly with the donkey. And of course, what did I name the lamb? Gabrielle. [Chuckles] And it’s Gabby for short.

Fair enough. One life saved, isn’t it?

Absolutely. It comes every morning for its nuts with the donkey, and it’s lovely. [Chuckle] Oh, gosh.

Just something to add – how amazing neighbours can be in a tough situation. John up the road came down every day on his motorbike – and walked quite a lot of the distance when he couldn’t ride all the way – and kept my deep freeze going with the generator that Tim brought from Taupo, and also fed Rosie the donkey and made sure that she was okay. So that was great. And also I did give a whole lot of food to the neighbours, but then a lot of it had to go into a hole that we dug.

In our interview, Gretchen speaks of her father, Robert Keeble. Robert Keeble was a player for the Colenso Pirates Football Club and patron of the same association.