Latest news with #Kaiteriteri
RNZ News
18-07-2025
- Climate
- RNZ News
Kaiteriteri campground flood victims count cost of storm damage
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. 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." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
12-07-2025
- Climate
- RNZ News
Rescue, devastating damage after creek floods through Tasman holiday park
A "wall of water" filled with forestry slash has laid waste to parts of a Kaiteriteri holiday park, forcing a daring escape in a digger bucket and leaving locals heartbroken. They say the relentless rain was like nothing they had ever seen and, by mid-afternoon, a torrent of water - waist-high and full of forestry slash - was barrelling through parts of Kaiteriteri's Bethany Park camp. Picking her way through deep silt, Waka Abel Tasman tourism business co-owner Lee-Ann Jago showed RNZ damage caused to boats, shelters and caravans that were usually stored at the back of the campsite. She said the mess was so overwhelming, she didn't know where to begin and couldn't believe the park's permanent residents weren't hurt, when the usually small creek burst its banks. On Saturday, Bethany Park campground in Kaiteriteri had extensive flood damage after the bad weather. Photo: SAMUEL RILLSTONE / RNZ "I just feel sorry for all of these people that live in Bethany Park," Jago said. "I heard that an older couple couldn't get out of their caravan last night and got rescued in a digger... hopped in the bucket. "We're really lucky that nobody lost their lives in this." While there were about 200 people at the park, only 2-3 needed accommodation elsewhere. Bethany Park campground, on Saturday. Photo: SAMUEL RILLSTONE / RNZ Jago said she was alerted to the damage on Friday night, but it was too dangerous to try to save anything. She was shocked when she arrived at first light on Saturday. One waka was destroyed and a new storage shelter ruined, while the rest of the boats were surrounded by at least a metre of silt and slash. "It's heartbreaking," she said. "This was our first waka that we got for our business and it took the brunt of the water." Photo: SAMUEL RILLSTONE / RNZ Jago estimated the business would be out of operation for weeks - even though it was the off-season, staff were still running boats a couple of times per week. "It feels quite overwhelming to even be thinking about the amount of work just to tidy things up," she said. "We won't be able to be on the water for some time." Photo: SAMUEL RILLSTONE / RNZ Jago had lived in the area since 1998 and likened the damage to a warzone, saying she had never experienced such relentless rain. She and other locals were worried it would happen again, and called for a serious conversation "at the highest levels" about forestry slash, once everything had been repaired. "Because our communities have been devastated - our communities on the East Coast here - it's not fair," she said. Photo: SAMUEL RILLSTONE / RNZ Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
