Fishing after Cyclone Gabrielle

Cyclone Gabrielle hit my home region of Hawkes Bay in the early hours of the 14th of February, 2023. Even that morning, no one knew just how big of an event this would come to be.

I had just arrived home from Taranaki the previous day, where I had spent two days trolling for tuna on my kayak. Gear was spread about, including a tent and kayak equipment due to be cleaned the next day. My house – located in Puketapu South – lost power at around 3am, which wasn’t really anything out of the ordinary during a storm. And even when my family and I awoke to the rain easing, there was little damage to the property to speak of. With no cell service or warnings, we headed up the road to check if there was a threat of flooding from the drain. There was only surface flooding across the road and a few trees down, so we turned around and headed home. At around 8 am, we were met with some concerned locals who were self-evacuating from the surrounding area. There was no way out to the south or the north due to surface flooding.

At around 8.30am the stricken cell network allowed a call through from my friend who lives in Puketapu North. The word from him (broken up by the poor reception) was to get to higher ground now – the river was coming! The call was from nine kilometres up the road, but all the same, my family began to grab our things to evacuate. I grabbed the cat and rabbits, and Mum sorted the survival kit. Our planned escape route was around a kilometre up the road to a neighbour’s property on a hill nearby. But by this point we were just a little late, the floodwater crept from Puketapu North down the road, ultimately blocking off the route to the hill. With the South end of the road also a big concern (as the Ngaruroro had just broken its stop bank) we attempted to drive the car up the back of our property to reach the hill instead. But the water had steadily risen to past the point of no return.

We ended up climbing a ladder onto our carport roof as a last resort with the cat, rabbits, survival gear and the lucky tent, which happened to be out airing from the Taranaki trip. At this point, I thought it would be a good idea to get the two kayaks out just in case they were needed. I parked my Viking Reload at the base of the carport and watched the water rise over the next hour, covering all of our vehicles and entering our house.

When the rescue choppers arrived, we signalled them on to the neighbours further North, as the water had got to roof height about 400m up the road. For us, it was time to get to higher ground. Grabbing a dingy from next door, I tied it to my kayak and towed my family, cat and rabbits to safety at the hill to the west. That night we managed to find a neighbour’s roof to sleep under, along with around ten others who had also escaped from below.

The cleanup over the next three weeks was daunting mentally and physically for all of Hawkes Bay, especially the hard-hit areas. Stop-banks had broken under the pressure of the rivers, and the water had to go somewhere.

Over the first week, we had some spectacular people turning up all along our road to deliver food and water while we cleared up the huge mess created by the floodwaters. From what I hear, this happened everywhere there were flood waters. The whole community banded together in the weeks following, which all the affected people greatly appreciated. Fishing mates quickly jumped to help any way they could, including sending some of my damaged reels away to get serviced (thank you to the Gray family), and even a few turned up at the house to help clear up (thank you, Laurie!).

A week after the cyclone, we still had water on the property, and miraculously some of the goldfish out of our pond had made it to a tiny puddle underneath a fence post near the road. A total of six fish were scooped up and happily released back into their home – a good feeling for sure.

A few weeks after the disaster, I got a phone call from the Taranaki Kayak Fishing Club, who were in the middle of their prize-giving for the Taranaki Kayak Classic (the first one I had missed since 2016). They informed me that during the competition, they had organised to raffle off an awesome cake and had raised over $700 to go towards a new car for me. I was a bit speechless at this point. I must thank everyone over there for what they did to help. The buggers also had me on speakerphone, so the other 200 people entered in the comp heard the whole thing (thank you to Holly at Rock Cottage Cakes and the whole crew over in Taranaki!).

Black Magic Tackle, who have supported me since 2017, immediately offered to help in any way they could. I can’t thank the team up in Auckland enough for making the time to have a chat and replace some of the gear that I had lost. During an Auckland break from the cyclone, I found my way up to the office and caught up with some familiar faces. Just having a chat was enough to take the mind away from the devastation and direct it back onto more normal things, like fishing!

The kindness and generosity shown by strangers, not just to my family but right across Hawkes Bay is something that will stick with me for the rest of my life. It made a really shit situation a little better for all of us.

Over a month after the cyclone and a serious flu fought off, too, I finally had a spare moment to get back out on the water. I threw some gear together and headed out through some heavy Waimarama beach surf, some surfers cheering me on when I made it out the back. This trip’s goal: land a bloody fish!

I didn’t head far out to sea, only around a kilometre onto the sand flats. I had found some freezer-burnt bait and burley to use and set up a trail wafting towards Bare Island. I looked out across the millpond I was floating on top of and sighed with relief. It was a beautiful morning, and I didn’t even mind if I caught any fish.

But as luck would have it, I would be catching fish, as a chunky kahawai quickly smacked one of my baits. For the next two hours, I simply couldn’t keep up with the amount of fish arriving in the trail. And once I had got a few of the kahawai out of the way, the fish turned red and grew wings. Gurnard piled onto the ledger rigs one after the other and were even taking unbaited flashers. Near the end of the session, I had four gurnard in a row over 1kg. I was more than done with a healthy bag of tasty carrots, the first time I had caught anything significant in about three months.

It felt like redemption since, even before the cyclone hit, fishing had been very tough due to it being the wettest summer in Hawkes Bay history. For me, it was important to get out for a fish as I use it not only as something I do for recreation and food but also as a way of keeping physically and mentally healthy. It was cathartic; I was able to let everything go and float around on the water for a few hours, far away from the stressors of life.

I headed into the surf gauntlet and promptly got smashed by a big wave, but I didn’t care as the gurnard didn’t fall out of my catch bag!

Gabrielle will not be forgotten quickly by the families of Hawkes Bay, but I can tell you that the community ties we’ve since made will help us to bounce back stronger than we ever were before. 

June 2023 - Blair Whiting
New Zealand Fishing News Magazine.
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