Cable Bay in a world of its own

No water, no power, no phone

TRACY NEAL

Cable Bay village is an island in a sea of mud, cut off from the country except by sea.

There's no water, power and in many homes, no telephone. Nor is there cellphone coverage in the north Nelson enclave.

Yesterday the Nelson Mail chartered a boat, bought milk and bread, and took Civil Defence responders Paul Blackham and Barry Rowe to Cable Bay.

Their initial assessment and a flyover yesterday has now triggered an urgent Civil Defence response that will include flying in supplies to the 45 homes today.

Civil Defence is also considering evacuating some residents whose homes are not habitable, because it could take two to three weeks to clear the roads.

Residents at the end of the road are sharing the rigours of their isolation brought about by severe flood-related slips that have destroyed parts of the road or blocked it completely to vehicles. The only way in or out is to negotiate the thigh-deep mud, steep sodden hills, or by kayak, as Julie McLintock did.

She arrived home to her stricken property late yesterday afternoon, bringing gifts of food to her neighbours, after kayaking from Maori Pa Rd.

"I knew it was bad but did not expect to see this much damage."

Ms McLintock had gone into Nelson on Wednesday to attend a Forest & Bird meeting, and was left stranded there until yesterday when she borrowed a kayak from town, strapped it to the roof of her car, drove as far as she could along Maori Pa Rd then kayaked the rest of the way.

"I just can't believe it's all gone," she said of the devastation to roads and property in Cable Bay. "It just breaks your heart."

Ms McLintock blamed subdivision works above the worst damaged areas for the slips.

She was grateful at least to still have her house, as several in the community had been severely damaged by tonnes of sticky dense mud careening down from upper slopes and landing in their back yards. The affected houses are on the estuary side of the road.

The two Civil Defence responders joined the Nelson Mail yesterday on the delivery trip to Cable Bay with Barry Bird of Sea-Bird Charters.

Long-time Cable Bay farming resident Barbara Stuart said most people in the area were reasonably well equipped, but there were some "awful stories" emerging of people with damage to their properties and who were now without power, and many were without water or communications.

"We've all banded together. And between us we'll have enough food."

The Stuarts, who run the camping ground at Cable Bay, had several campers stranded and doubted the road would be cleared and repaired in time to accommodate the pre-Christmas campers booked at the site.

"The campers here are coping but they'd like to get out. They're resigned to the situation though," Mrs Stuart said.

Her son, Sam, who returned to the farm in October after several years away, said it was the worst damage he'd seen.

"Grandma is 90 and she said she had never seen it this bad."

Neil and Sandra Barker, who immigrated to New Zealand from England five years ago, and chose to live in Cable Bay for "the sunshine", said the meaning of the community came to the fore in times like these.

Brandon Hood, who has lived at Cable Bay for 20 years, had never seen it so bad.

He arrived back from a job on a fishing boat and managed to make it home to his family yesterday after scrambling over the deeply scarred hills.

Philippa Vine and Bill Emsley, who have lived in the area since 1982, were not about to be shifted out, despite concerns about Mr Emsley's frail condition.

At one stage he was up to his thighs in mud on the way to aneighbour's house.

Civil Defence crew offered to take them back to Nelson in the boat, but they preferred to stay with neighbour Andrew Renton, who was suffering from having run out of cigarettes, and had no hope of getting more soon.

Ms Vine said they were alerted to the looming trouble on Wednesday night and spent the night with another neighbour.

They now had a bad slip behind their house.

Editor Paul McIntyre said the Nelson Mail was pleased to be able to help by chartering the boat to Cable Bay because the cut-off community was in need of assistance.

- © Fairfax NZ News