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As the second anniversary of the 2023 extreme weather events nears, a letter from early last century has come to light, telling a tale of an incredible storm that hit Kaipara around the same time as the infamous Cyclone Gabrielle, albeit 104 years before.
Dated March 10, 1918, the historic letter between two young cousins highlights the similarities of storms, with locals cut off from supplies and communication, as well as transport issues after usual modes of travel were cut by flooding, landslides and treacherous coastal waters.
The letter’s author, Te Arai resident 18-year-old Thelma Cross, was writing to her cousin Zoe, and describes large trees uprooted and cow sheds, barns and haystacks blown down, “the goat’s house was upset along with Nan the goat, but she wasn’t the least bit hurt”.
“For six weeks the train hasn’t been able to run [due] to the big slips that fell … and labour is scarce … not enough men to clear the line any sooner. The steamer Kawau was also unable to cross the bar for a week or more and people in Te Arai and Mangwhai were out of flour, bread and biscuits, three necessary things [two anyhow],” she writes. “For three whole weeks, the Tomarata district was without mail and we had none for a week. The post people were at their wit’s end to know how to get the mail out … it was a great jumble. What are the poor Pattersons going to do about their store and things? It is very hard luck.”
Thelma also writes that the Mangawhai Bridge was “half-washed away by the heavy seas” leaving people to navigate the stormy currents of the river.
“The mailman and his cart and horse went into a hole and had great difficulty in getting out again. As it was, he nearly lost the horse which as it happened, did not belong to him.” However, although Thelma mentions that Mangawai Bridge was damaged, which at the time was part of the Insley Street causeway opened in 1906, according to Mangawhai Museum archives, the only bridge adversely affected around this time was a stone structure stretching across a piece of the river, between Devich Road and Bentley Point. Located off a paper road, the bridge, built before the Insley Street causeway, enabled folk to get to ‘The Beach’ aka Mangawai Village. Bentley Point has now disappeared under the mangroves and attempts to find remnants of the stone bridge have been unsuccessful.
Thelma’s daughter-in-law, Maungaturoto resident Brenda Jones, passed the letter on to Mangawhai Focus as she thought it was a good human interest story.
“We came across her letter when I was helping my husband’s cousin write a book about his family. His mother, Thelma, lived in Te Arai for a little while with her mother and stepfather on a farm, though we don’t know how long they stayed there,” she says. “I just thought if you can get anything first-hand, it’s a real treasure.”
According to NIWA’s historic weather catalogue, the storm was possibly the tail-end of the tropical hurricane, Zaphon, whose ferocious centre was located 200 miles off Kaipara Heads. Travelling in a south-easterly direction over February 14 and 15, 1918, Zaphon shares nearly the same timeline as Cyclone Gabrielle.
On Northland/Auckland Anniversary Weekend, February 27, 2023, Hurricane Hale raged through the North Island followed two weeks later by his big sister Gabrielle on February 13 and 14. Ten days later, intense thunderstorms unleashed an unprecedented amount of rain directly onto Mangawhai. The storm-trio caused extensive flooding through the North Island including Ruawai and Dargaville, as well as massive landslides along SH1 across the Brynderwyn Hills.
Note: A big thank you to Mangawhai Museum’s history team members, Janis Speer and Bev Ross, for their time and assistance with this story.
