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The name Puhoi translates as ‘slow water’. However, there was nothing remotely slow about how quickly the river rose and inundated the heart of the historic community that bore the brunt of the floods on Friday, January 27.
Heavy rain throughout the day meant that locals were keeping a close eye on the river, as it does tend to breach its banks ever few years, but the pace and extent of the floodwater this time took everyone by surprise.
When Ivan King of Saleyards Road left town for Ōrewa at around 4pm, the waters were approaching the road through town. By the time he came back 45 minutes later, he was stranded near the Centennial Hall by a lagoon of muddy water too deep to drive through and still rising fast.
For more than 350 metres, from the hall through to beyond the rotunda, silty water swamped the main road, the town library, the general store and Puhoi River Motors, and filled the Puhoi Pub garden almost up to the doors.
At its peak, the waters were over the library door and halfway up the windows and doors of the shop, ruining everything in its path, not least the home and livelihood of Puhoi General Store owners Nic Lodewyks and Jo Lloyd.
Across the river, the carpark, tennis courts and playing fields resembled an inland sea, with coffee-coloured water submerging the sports and community club halfway up to the veranda, and ruining everything on the ground floor.
And right up the Puhoi Valley, the river became a torrent, with trees, garden furniture and even show jumps getting swept up, snagged in trees or carried way out to sea at Wenderholm.
Local fire chief Russell Green pretty much lost his whole business, as Puhoi River Motors went underwater for the first time in its history.
“I’ve been here 25 years and seen plenty of floods, but this was the worst,” he said. “I had an engineer tell me when we put the building in it was high enough to cope with a 100-year flood, but it went over that.
“It’s a total loss. The building’s still okay, but everything inside is damaged and probably written off.”
It was a similar story at the General Store, where thigh-high water wrecked stock, equipment, fixtures and fittings in the shop, as well as the adjoining family home. The flood filled mailboxes with mud and uprooted a large shipping container used for storage – only the metal railings on a pedestrian bridge opposite Krippner Road stopped it from disappearing entirely down-river.
In the library, everything was destroyed except for items on the very top shelf – the worst flood by far since a similar onslaught almost a century earlier, which caused it to close its doors in 2024.
However, the community has rallied magnificently since, with local residents and contractors rescuing people and vehicles, clearing slips and hauling away debris from deluged buildings.
“We were extremely lucky, I don’t think I’ve seen the community rally round like they did on the Saturday morning after,” Green said afterwards. “Every community has it, people get together to help, but I’d have to say it was pretty impressive here.”
The community was also quick to help those worst affected, Nic and Jo at the General Store, who lost virtually everything. Friend Sarita McLean set up a Givealittle page that, as Hibiscus Matters went to press last week had raised more than $23,500. Anyone wishing to donate should go to https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/help-puhoi-store
