A farmer who lives on the banks of Tasman’s Wai-iti River is counting the cost of four floods in three years, with torrents washing away feed, scouring paddocks and flattening fences.
Jolene Rushbrooke and her partner were cut off by road after the approach to their bridge crossing the river was also washed out in heavy rain over King’s Birthday weekend.
Instead of going to work, Rushbrooke was surveying the “devastating” mess left behind.
The mess after heavy rainfall in the Tasman.
Photo: RNZ/Louis Dunham
“We’re pretty close-knit up here, we’ve got good friends and neighbours. It’s really heartbreaking that this just happens all the time,” she said.
“My horses live down here so I rescued them at 10 o’clock last night and put them up on high ground. There goes all my winter feed again.
“It’s a river flat, it’s a flood plain, we understand that, but we’d like a bit of help.”
Tasman’s Wai-iti River after heavy rainfall.
Photo: RNZ/Louis Dunham
Rushbrooke said river levels would need to drop before they could do repairs.
“It’s fixable and we’re okay, that’s the main thing. None of our stock are missing. The house is fine,” she said.
“We’re probably going to be stuck here for a good couple of weeks. We’ve got some lovely friends who have offered us spare vehicles so at least I might be able to get to work, which my bosses will be pleased about.”
MetService said some stations in the Tasman district recorded a “whopping” 400-700mm of rain in 48 hours.
The council said 739mm was recorded in the Golden Bay ranges near Paradise Peak, 673mm near Canaan Downs, 291mm on Tākaka Hill, 189mm in Tākaka township and 105mm in Collingwood.
Tasman’s Wai-iti River after heavy rainfall.
Photo: RNZ/Louis Dunham
Rushbrooke said she asked the district council to work on the river because of gravel build-up following last year’s winter floods but was told there was not enough funding to do the job.
“This river is now so shallow because of the gravel build-up that there’s nowhere for the water to go,” she said.
“No-one’s even been up to talk to us and that’s the devastating thing. They’ve had a year to come and do something and they haven’t even been to look. You just get a bit tired of the same old, same old. We just feel like we’re the poor cousins, we just feel like nobody gives a hoot. We just get left to do our own thing.
“The only reason the damage is not as bad is it could have been is because our neighbour brought a big bulldozer and got into the river. He probably did five or six kilometres of river work at no cost to us, so that if this happened again we wouldn’t be in as much strife as we were last year.”
The council apologised for any oversight in not speaking directly to Rushbrooke and promised to get in touch with her.
A spokesperson said the council had been “hard at work” on Tasman’s rivers since the June-July 2025 floods and had established a programme that would progressively address flood-damaged areas for the next 20 months.
Work was grouped into three broad categories of channel-shaping, rock works (repairing and installing rock structures) and willow planting.
Shaping work on the Wai-iti River would run for most of the year, followed by rock works well into 2027, they said.
The council said willows were planted immediately after the flood, with further plantings planned this year and in 2027.
Rushbrooke’s neighbour George Sims shifted cattle at 10.30pm on Monday night as the rain intensified.
“I thought it was a waste of time going to bed anyway because I’m not going to sleep. If I go and let them through, I won’t be worried about them all night,” he said.
He was relieved the the flooding was not as bad as last winter’s devastation that left paddocks strewn with tonnes of boulders, shingle and logs and water through his house.
“It’s only a bad dream now,” he said.
In nearby Wakefield, Jo Davidson said water was creeping up along sandbags at the back of her house early on Monday morning.
Wakefield resident Jo Davidson at her flooded property on Tuesday.
Photo: RNZ/Samantha Gee
“It was probably one decking board from coming inside. It was just horrible,” she said.
“Every time it rains at night you’re checking the rain radar to see what’s going on, it’s like PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder]. I felt physically sick. It just doesn’t stop. At least this time 20 of my friends didn’t have to come and clean up.”
Davidson’s orchard was swamped, turning a usually small pond into a mini-lake for her neighbour’s ducks called Pad, Thai, Dim, Sim, Won and Ton.
She said the council needed to find a way to stop water diverting to a nearby reserve but would not contribute to fixing the problem.
“It’s out the gate, it’s just ridiculous that it keeps happening,” she said.
“It’s just frustrating because you expect the council to help, or at least give a toss, that would be nice. If it wasn’t for the community we would all be screwed.”
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