Late-night door knock sees bach vacated for hotel
Alice Geary was enjoying a game of cards with friends at a bach in Ō mārama when a late-night knock at the door changed her plans dramatically.
The Dunedin woman was holidaying in the town with her partner and friends from Australia when their quiet Monday night was quickly altered as a person at the door told them at about 11.30pm that the nearby river was rising.
‘‘The water was coming up to the house and our friends have a 1-year-old, so we got our stuff and got out quickly,’’ said Geary, a former reporter at The Timaru Herald.
‘‘We were a bit scared. The advice to us was maybe to try to stay, but we got out with the water coming up to the house and with a baby there too.’’
Nearby, at the Ō mārama Top 10 Holiday Park, co-owner Erwin Beiboer, said they evacuated about 60 guests.
He said they went around knocking on people’s doors and their campsites during the night telling them they had to evacuate.
‘‘The water was up to our knees. It was really stressful.’’
Beiboer said ‘‘I have no clue what time it was, maybe around 1am’’ when they started evacuating people.
‘‘The holiday park is at the lowest part of Ō mā rama, so anywhere else is better than us.
‘‘People are staying in the hotel across the street.’’
Beiboer and his wife, who have owned the park for just over a year, also stayed at the hotel on Monday night.
He doesn’t know if there has been any significant damage to the park.
‘‘At the moment, we’re just taking it all in, we will be closed for a week to clean up after this.’’
Environment Canterbury’s duty flood manager Chris Fauth said yesterday that the Ahuriri River and Ō mārama Stream had significant flows on Monday night.
‘‘They have now peaked and have started to drop, but will stay at relatively high flow,’’ Fauth said.
‘‘We ask people to continue to monitor their situation.’’
Geary said they were told to go to the Ō mā rama Hall, where the Civil Defence had set up.
‘‘They were brilliant. We were the only ones there, and they told us to go to the hotel.’’
At 1am on Tuesday, Geary, her partner, and her friends and their baby had settled into the Gateway Hotel.
She said while the rain had been persistent throughout the day, they had no idea how quickly it had risen until the knock at the door, and had been impressed to have got the alert they may need to get out.
‘‘It wasn’t gushing water, just rising,’’ she said.