Flood brings forest to farm’s backyard
Farm owner Philip King could not figure out why his stream had flooded his farm – until he discovered a $100,000 shock.
King and his farm manager, Danny Summers, woke on Saturday to find the stream on their Gebbies Pass farm, near Christchurch, blocked with logs – flooding the paddocks and causing immense damage.
King estimated the damage to Loudon Farm to be more than $100,000. Summers said repair work could take up to two years.
The morning after heavy deluges struck Canterbury and Otago, the pair drove to the back of their farm and found thousands of logs stacked up to 6 metres high, some of which had drifted down the stream and blocked it up for 3 kilometres.
King said the logs looked like slash, the leftovers of a logging operation further uphill.
Loudon Farm backs on to King’s forest, which he does not log but saves as a carbon bank. But behind that is Waiake Forest, which is logged.
King believed the ‘‘slash’’ came down from Waiake, through the Waiake Stream and burst through their gates.
Waiake Forestry shareholder and manager Alan Ogle said he was aware the forest roads took a pounding during the deluge and there was damage to the area.
He was surprised to hear about the damage to Loudon Farm though.
Meanwhile, already sodden parts of the South Island got a fresh covering of snow yesterday, with Tekapo at one point cut off.
State Highway 8, between Twizel and Fairlie, reopened at 1.45pm after it was earlier closed on either side of Tekapo village due to heavy snow and icy conditions on the road.
Heavy rain and gales were predicted from the south through to North Island regions and snow through to this morning was forecast to 400 metres in Southland and Otago, 300m in Canterbury and 500m in Marlborough.