Precipice
Stories of landslides and community restoration in Muriwai New Zealand following the devastating 13 February 2023 Cyclone Gabrielle.
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Precipice
A Home Buried by a Landslide: Cyclone Gabrielle Hits Muriwai. Ep 2 Precipice Podcast.
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Eddie Wood joins me in this episode. Eddie is a surfer and kite surfer who came to Aotearoa NZ from the UK in 2012 and has lived in Muriwai for most of the time since then. His house came down with one of the biggest landslides in Motutara Road opposite the Muriwai Lodge on the night of cyclone Gabrielle.
Eddie talks us through the events of the night of the cyclone at his place.
He shares the trauma of discovering his friends volunteer firefighters Craig and Dave were trapped on his property, evacuating to the surf club and losing his family home, receiving support and assistance from the community, feelings of guilt, and choosing to stay in Muriwai and settle into a new home.
Eddie talks about how this catastrophic event affected him, his family and his mental health. And he shares what cyclone gabrielle has taught him.
Precipice launched on July 20th 2026. 3 seasons will be released across 4 weeks and then the full series of 26 episodes will be available for you to listen to at your leisure.
Season 1: Cyclone Gabrielle Hits Muriwai
Season 2: Disaster Recovery and Community Restoration
Season 3: Community Initiatives after a Cyclone
Listen on You Tube https://www.youtube.com/@precipicepodcast
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Hosted and produced by Mandy Jakich. Commissioned and funded by Muriwai Community Association, supported by the Auckland Council Recovery Office.
A small vibrant coastal community of Muriwai Beach, northwest of Auckland New Zealand, was a ripped apart by Cyclone Gabrielle. This podcast captures what happened on the night and in the days, months, and years that followed. Join me, Mandy Jakich, as I speak to fellow Muriwai locals, volunteers, and those involved in the emergency and recovery effort. Hear about their experiences of loss and upheaval, the impact on their lives, and the community-led initiatives that helped Muriwai find a way forward. Welcome to Precipice. Eddie Wood joins me in this episode. Eddie is a surfer and kite surfer who came to Aotearoa New Zealand from the UK in 2012, and he's lived in Muriwai for most of the time since then. His house came down with one of the biggest landslides in Motutara Road, opposite the Muriwai Lodge, on the night of Cyclone Gabrielle.
EddieAnd then we heard a big crack and a rumble. Instantly we knew it was a slip coming down. I'd never heard one before, but the the sound was unmistakable.
MandyEddie talks us through the events of the night of the cyclone at his place.
EddieThe big slip came down, carried our house probably forty meters down the hill. But at that point, when we escaped the house, nothing at all mattered apart from having Hannah and the boys.
MandyHe shares the trauma of discovering his friends, volunteer firefighters Craig and Dave, were trapped on his property, evacuating to the surf club and losing his family home, receiving support and assistance from the community, feelings of guilt, and choosing to stay in Muriwai and settle into a new home.
EddieI think I had a few times after the storm where I felt so content in Muriwai with being out surfing, mountain biking, out of the kids that it grounded me again and made me love Muriwai again and not want to not want to leave.
MandyEddie talks about how this catastrophic event affected him, his family, and his mental health. He shares what Cyclone Gabrielle has taught him.
EddieI've lived in Muriwai for about eight years.
MandyI mean you're obviously a surfer, your whole family are into the surf. Was there any reason in particular that you chose Muriwai?
EddieUm my partner flatted out here for probably five or six years previous um meeting, and um we actually met here. I think we were always gonna live in Muriwai, um, New Zealand. Yeah. It was just in the in on the cards pretty much, in the stars, if you like.
MandyAnd when did you come out from England?
EddieUh I came out originally in 2012 and was doing summer to summer, so summer in England and um summer in New Zealand, and then I met Hannah one time when I checked the surf and the waves weren't very good, so um yeah, I just met her when she was flattened just down at near the beach.
MandyOn to talking about the cyclone before the cyclone actually hit, how were you feeling about that sort of incoming weather event?
EddieUm I was checking it quite regularly. Um I noticed the clouds were actually um look quite different from the deck we were looking at over the ocean probably three days before, and the clouds um you could see something was eventually going to happen, and I was showing the boys, my boys quite a lot. Um I was checking it a lot on Windy and other sort of um websites, weather-related websites, but it didn't look like it was gonna hit Miraway. It looked like it was gonna go down the east coast as they normally do, and um hit the Coromandel. To be honest, even like at 7 pm of the night of the storm, I looked at it and I messaged my parents back in England and said, We'll be okay, it's gonna go down the east coast. I was so confident that it was gonna go that way. Um, but yeah, obviously it swung the last at the last minute, came over to the west.
MandyWere you expecting what we normally get with storms like power outages and and that kind of thing?
EddieUm we didn't have work organized for the next day, so we did think it was gonna be um it would have affected our work. Um my boss at the time just said we look we were not gonna organise anything because of the storm, but to be honest, I thought it was just another media hype, as the cyclones are a lot in New Zealand, and they don't turn out to be as bad as um the media make out they are going to be.
MandyDid you prepare as a family and sort of make you know, grab bags or anything like that?
EddieNo, no, we didn't at all. Um we were just looking forward to a cozy night, watching a movie, just me and Hannah and getting the boys to bed early, um and uh and being excited not going work the next day, pretty pretty much and looking forward to a day off.
MandySo can you talk us through please what happened that night and and when you started realizing how serious it was?
EddieUm yeah, sure. So I actually went for a drive about 6 30 that evening um just to just to see how bad it was, because we're so sheltered at our our house from those that direction of wind. Um I drove down to um Mauro Bay and had a look at the waterfall there, which was um yeah, the amount of water that was coming out of it was pretty insane, like the most water I'd ever seen. Um the rain was it was it was heavy, it wasn't really, really heavy, but it was super consistent. Um, but it was the wind. I drove down to the horse park, and those pine trees would I literally watched two or three just snap in half, and it was pretty scary um watching that, so I stayed pretty clear, and then after maybe 45 minutes, I drove back to the house, and at the house is actually quite calm, like I say, we're quite sheltered from those winds. Um and I wasn't worried about the volume of water at that stage. It was probably around 10 pm. I could hear water running at the back of our property. Uh initially I just thought it was the gutters overflowing as they as they do. I walked outside to check what I thought was the gutters overflowing, but it was actually the water coming down um the steps at the back of our property, and it was like a pretty good size waterfall coming down, and it was um actually pooling in the gaps of the the deck in and uh and it filling up, it was coming down so quick that the water was actually coming up through the deck, and this was the top floor of the property on quite a um steep gradient, if you like, of hill, so it shouldn't have really been flooding. Um I just went down to the van and and grabbed a decent light and a and a big spade, came back up to the um up to the house to start digging and see what I could do, diverting water, and then um one of my best friends just turned up out of the blue saying, Do you want some help? And it just turned out that um Hannah had been messaging her WhatsApp group with her friends, and Hady had just told Jordan to come and help us and see if he could help. So we walked down the side of the property where the water was going and dug a channel to redirect the water away, away from going down into the basement, if you like, downstairs. Um we'd just just finished diverting the water away. It took us maybe about five minutes to do that, and then we heard a big crack and a rumble. Instantly, we knew it was a slip coming down. You could I'd never heard one before, but the the sound was unmistakable. Um I was probably a couple of meters away to the right of Jordan. Um my escape was literally just to turn and run, jump over the fence and retaining wall. Um Jordan was right next to the corner of the house, so he sort of ducked in behind the house. As the slip stopped, um Jordan was banging on the on the door downstairs to get Hannah to open it. She was still in the house with the boys, and um she ran down the stairs, grabbed Cody out of bed, um, and then brought him outside, grabbed Nico out of bed and handed him to Jordan. And then I, as I jumped off the retaining wall, I hit my head pretty hard on on what I believe was the fence post. Um I got up, sort of staggered along. Um staggered, I remember staggering into the water tank and then coming back up around the driveway, walking up the drive, and just seeing the slip down the side, left-hand side of the house. Quite a lot of um debris, mostly just mud and boulders. And as I got up, um this was only a few seconds after hearing the slip, maybe 10 seconds after hearing the slip come down, and um I could see the mud just slowing down and the boulders just slowly rolling over the top of the mud. At that point, Jordan was trying to pass Nico down off the retaining wall to me. Um, Hannah had Cody. I saw her try and run for the steps, which isn't the normal access to the house, but that was all blocked. She could she couldn't go that way. Um, so they had to run down through the rock garden and through the bushes towards me. Um yeah, I was pretty out of it at this point. Um like yeah, can pretty concursed and blood on my mud on my head. And anyway, we just um Jordan gave me Nico, we walked down the driveway to where Jordan's Ute was parked. Um and then we all got in the Ute, drove back up the road to Jordan's house, and as we got out of the Ute we could see Jordan's house as a little bit of flooding, and his neighbour's um driveway was underwater. They were trying to do something with their caravan. I think I remember that. But obviously we're all in a state of panic, a stake of sh state of shock. And um we just wanted to get the kids in the house. I just wanted to get in the house and and lay down. I was in a lot of pain, a lot of shock. Um so we walked across the driveway with the boys. It was raining, I remember it raining real hard, windy, and um we just saw Craig and and Dave. They were stood on the corner of this at the side of the driveway. Um I just remember Craig asking me, Do you want help? He obviously could see my head was bleeding pretty bad, and then I just said, Can you like go and get Jen out of a house? Go get Jen out, I think were my exact words.
MandyJen lived one property down from Eddie and Hannah.
EddieUm and that that was it. We just we just left them at on the driveway and just walked into the house. Um I laid down on the floor. Hannah sat on the sofa with the with the boys and Haiti, Jordan's wife, um I think she called me an ambulance pretty much straight away. Um Jordan went back out. I remember that he went back out to help his neighbours because their driveway was flooded and they were trying to save the caravan.
MandyCan you explain the terrain around your house?
EddieOur floor level of our house was probably ten meters above the road level if you like, like vertical meters, and then to get up to the house it was probably about 30-35 meters walking up a decent slope on a driveway. Um then behind the property was another it was it was steep, but you could you could walk up it. Um that probably went for another 150 meters probably up the hill, and then it became a toe of a cliff on on the wire road. That was like the top of a wire road, toe of a cliff, and then a steep gradient. But it had really old trees on it, probably two, three hundred-year-old trees, so it looks stable. The land, yeah, like most of Murawai is very well established and looks stable, looks safe. There's nothing really scary about it. I mean, there are parts, but and it wasn't like a sort of an overhanging cliff kind of no, it wasn't a looming cliff, yeah, vertical cliff face, not by any imagination. It was beautiful native bush. Yeah, yeah.
MandyAnd your house in the end was completely destroyed by the landslide.
EddieYeah, so um yeah, I just I was just laying on the floor at um at Hades house and um she just called an ambulance. We were waiting on the ambulance. But I think Hannah's phone rang. Yeah, that's right. Hannah's phone rang and I could hear someone screaming down the phone, and it was our neighbour, Jen. Um so what had happened with Jen? She'd slept in her front room. I think she was a bit more worried than most people about the cliff or the slips. She'd slept in her front room. I know her bedroom's in the back in the back of the house, but I think I just found that out obviously a later day. I didn't know that before. Um the big slip came down, carried our house probably 40 meters down the hill onto the road with all the foliage and the trees. It clipped Jen's house and um actually the her floor gave way. So she fell into the basement in the night. She told me that she woke up, heard the big bang, woke up, her roof had gone, she could see up into the night. She fell through the floor into the basement and then the facade of her house at the front fell open and then luckily Phelan the fireman who's with the boys he heard her screaming and she ran he ran up and um and rescued her, got her out, and then I think Hannah's brother and sister-in-law were actually coming up the road to help me with my concussion, my head injury, and Phelan asked both of them to look after after Jen. And I think that's when she made that call to Hannah and told Hannah in a very obviously panicked and shocked state that the boys were trapped. At that stage, I yeah, I was not really with it. I didn't know where they were trapped, how they were trapped, um, what they were doing, when they were trapped. Um, it wasn't until two days after that I found out that it was at actually at our house. Um so yeah, that short, very short but intense conversation. Jen called Hannah, maybe five to ten seconds. Um Hannah obviously got real shocked and panicked and was crying, and and both I remember both our boys were on the sofa just with their eyes wide open, just didn't really know what was going on. Obviously, it was pretty late for them, eleven o'clock at night. Um, just been woken up in the middle of night and they're soaking wet. Um then we were sort of waiting on an ambulance for me, but realised that we we the ambulance couldn't make it, the all the attention then was on the boys, the slip. Um I remember flashing lights coming past Hades' house. There were quite a few flashing lights, but they they were obviously would have had to turn around and go the whole long way around. Um we were sort of in I was on the floor maybe for 20 minutes, 25 minutes, and then one of the girls, I think it was Hannah, mentioned we need to go to the surf club. I think Hannah's brother had called her and said everyone's evacuating to the surf club. This was probably yeah, 20 to 25 minutes after the big slip, and we were deliberating are we safer to try and make it to the surf club through the storm, driving round Middle Away, or stay here in the house.
MandyAnd where was Jordan's house? Further up Montana.
EddieUm so the sharp corner as you come down Motatara Road, um, probably I'd say about two, two, three hundred metres from my property. I did feel like we were still in danger at Jordan's house just because of the trees, the size of the trees around the house, and also the there is a bit of a clill. Um to the east or the north, the north side of Jordan's house is a bit of a hill, and yeah, we were I was worried. Um so I was keen to go to the surf club and get out of there.
MandyThat was actually more treacherous than we all imagined.
EddieYeah.
MandyGetting down that road and then more complicated as well in the end. Yeah. Yeah. How did you go getting to the surf club?
EddieI remember um I remember j we walked outside and Jordan had just come back up the hill. So he was he was a bit of a mess. Like he'd so what happened with Jordan, he went over to the neighbour's property and um helped Rob with his caravan, his neighbor, seven uh 80 Motor Road. He'd gone over, helped him tow the caravan down the road. He was trying to park it in Topshop because their house was flooding at 80 Mojatar Road, and um they got to my house just minute seconds or minutes after the slip. So they couldn't go past anymore. They jumped over the fence, walked around the slip, and then Phelan told them that the the boys were trapped. Um Jordan said he could hear Craig. Um so he called a couple of people to to go and help um a local a local boy, um, well, a local man um to go and help him. So he came up back up to the house, got an impact driver, went back down to the slip and was trying pulling he was pulling the roof off with the impact driver. Um trying to get the roof off to help help Craig.
MandyHow was that Jordan's partner feeling about him being down there at the time?
EddieI honestly don't think she fully understood what was going on. Nun none of us knew what was going on. We just yeah, uh we just did not know what was happening. We just knew Jordan would are gone. And then um and then he was he was back and we were on the way to the surf club. Um so we drove around the top, it was it was pretty crazy. Jordan was just in in a deep state of shock after what he'd seen. Um we tried to go to the surf club the normal way, just past the the um bottom shop, if you want to call it that. Um, but that was flooded, that we couldn't go that way. That whole area near the beach, near the surf tower was all flooded. So we had to go around um where the tennis courts are and the skate park and go in that that way. Um there was probably 10 or 15 cars parked on the football field, the rugby field down there. And then we started walking down the hill to the surf club, but there's actually cars stuck on the way down to the surf club, and that was quite treacherous because um the water had made it very deep, like cut under the under the um the soil and made it very deep in that area, so it was pretty dangerous. Like the I remember the wind and the rain and the big pine trees down there. That was quite scary walking under that area. I thought the the pine trees would be coming down pretty soon with that wind.
MandyYeah, and in the dark as well. And with your two kids, how were they at that time?
EddieThat time, yeah, I actually can't even remember. Like, I think I was still in a bit of a lot of shock. I was in a lot of shock, and I didn't really know how bad my head was.
MandyAnd how were you going with moving and that kind of thing when you were actually quite badly injured?
EddieI was yeah, I think um who was helping? I think someone was helping me at that stage. Um maybe Hannah's sister-in-law, maybe she met us in the car park and she had her arm around me and she was sort of pulling me along. Um but I actually felt like I was helping her for some re for some reason at the same time by helping each other. Um, we walked down to the surf club, and I've never felt that relief of being safe as soon as I saw um I saw Jeff, my close friend, and I saw Glen, um Galfo, one of the local um lifesavers, and a and a friend. And just seeing those two like gave me such a relief and uh made me feel safe. I was like, okay, we're safe now, like we've escaped.
MandyHow did you get word to actually you know that the that everyone was was heading down to the surf club? How did you find out that that's what you should do?
EddiePhelan. It was Phelan. Um when Phalan rescued Jen, he um he gave Jen to Seth and Bex to look after. And Phelan said, Go to the Surf Club. Yeah, evacuate to the Surf Club.
MandyI wonder if that's something that the volunteer firefighters had, you know, if that was a plan that they'd kind of thought through, if there was a an event of some sort. Yeah. Meet like everyone should congregate.
EddieWell, there must have been a safety area, yeah, that that um the that the firefighters knew about. I suppose it would be in their protocol.
MandyThe surf club was a great place to meet in a way, but a lot of people couldn't actually get there and it was flooded and there was no power and there were certain certain issues down there. How did you go down there with in such sort of tricky conditions being injured as well?
EddieYeah, so um I remember a lot of my friends coming over to me and uh worried, I said how like pale I was, and I was soaking wet, and I was just I had I borrowed Jordan's um boardies because I actually escaped in just my undies and a jacket, so I was a bit embarrassed to go down there, so I got some boardies off Jordan, but I was soaking wet, and I think a couple of my friends gave me clothes because they must have had like a grab bag that they'd organised, so they obviously had a lot more time to get some clothes ready to come down to the surf club. I remember sitting on the sofa with Jordan and um he was obviously still in a lot of shock, very, very quiet. I do remember trying to go sleep, the kids were we were all in a bunk bed together, so the kids were in the bottom bunk and me and Hannah were in the top bunk. It was super uncomfortable. I could not get sleep at all, I was so much pain, and and the wind was was insane. I thought the building was gonna like not collapse, but I thought there was gonna be some damage because the wind hitting the side of it was I'd never heard anything like that before. This you could really, really hear the storm at that point. Um and that went on for four or five hours till maybe like 4 a.m. I think we just finally got sleep, and then Beck's Hannah's sister-in-law came up and woke us up and actually said the surf club is flooding, mirror wise flooding so bad that we might get cut off. So the Unimog's on its way. Do you want to get on the truck? And um yeah, we got onto the truck, the second truck, I believe, and um they took us to Waimauku RSA, and we were there with other people from Waimaku that didn't know anything about what had happened in Mirawai. Um but again it was nice, we felt safe, we could have a cup of tea and some food, and the kids could actually get a proper lay down. Um we were probably there for two hours, and then we went to Seffenbeck's close friends in Waimauku for maybe another two hours, and then to Hannah's parents um in Beachhaven. Yeah. And just the amount of help was quite overwhelming from arriving at the surf club to arriving at Waimalku RSA to um Seth and Bex's friends, Hannah's parents, all the charities that helped out after, um friends giving us clothes, companies giving us clothes. It's just it was just so overwhelming that that helpless feeling was always there. You yeah, you're so used to providing for your family, but you just couldn't. You was in too much shock, and um yeah, so that helpless feeling not knowing what had happened to the boys, um that was with me all night, just not knowing what had happened to Craig and Dave, if they were okay, where they were. Um yeah, that helpless feeling was just there the whole time. Yeah, the whole time.
MandyI can imagine. And you were you are a builder and you did you actually build your house?
EddieNo, I didn't. But you did a lot of a lot of work, yeah, a lot of work, yeah, as Taylor would know. Yeah, yeah.
MandyAnd um that must have been really tough, just you know, losing that place that you'd poured so much love into and had your boys there, and you know, that must have felt quite strange. I mean, how did you actually feel?
EddieLike what were you thinking was going to happen with now that your house was, you know, like honest honestly, honestly, you work so hard and you you do all the work on the house, you build the house, you've got all these materialistic things that you love and are invaluable, but at that point, when we escaped the house, nothing at all mattered apart from having Hannah and the boys. Now and it sounds a bit cliche, but yeah, that's the that's the truth. That's exactly how I felt. Yeah, like the house meant absolutely nothing, the contents, absolutely nothing at all. And with what happened to Craig and Dave, like that's just been the feeling ever since, like none of that mattered at all. Yeah, and um yeah, yeah, I think it obviously takes something like that to realise what's it's important in life. Yeah, it's hard it's hard, eh? You always try and keep up with the Joneses if you like, and and I think it's just human nature. Whatever you've got, you want more. It's just human nature to improve. Or yeah, or just or want more. You go surfing, you want bigger waves, better waves, like it's never good enough. Nothing's ever good enough to human, you know, we'll always want more.
MandySo after that, I mean I guess you sort of just you know going with it really, and then then at some point you must have come to the re the sort of reality of it and and what position you were in as far as not having a home. Yeah. So it'll be really good for you just to kind of give us a bit of an overview of how you dealt with that and w the things that you did to kind of start the motions around your home.
EddieYeah, so um Hannah's parents are really good to us. Like um, we stayed there for probably a week, maybe two weeks, and then um stayed at Hannah's brother's house for a week, and then back to Hannah's parents. But it was probably the day after the storm. Um one of my friends called me and actually offered me a rental property straight away, and we could take it whenever we we wanted. So that was like a really nice, not fresh start, but like just just uh something to to go to, really. Um so we had the rental lined up for probably a month, um, in a month's time, if you like, the day after the storm. Once we moved into the rental, um, we got given a lot of furniture for free, which was real nice, um, and clothes and toys for the kids, like I said previous with charities. Um then it was the harder thing, like trying to deal with the insurance and what was going to happen with our house. We just didn't know anything, like, yeah, like everything was gone, the section was gone, the house was gone, everything was gone. Uh it was definitely a bit of a learning process. Um, insurance was actually pretty good. They they met us at the surf club um and sorted out contents and house insurance, I believe. Like pretty much straight away. Well, they paid the contents with no list of what we had or values or anything, they just paid it to the value of what we were insured for. I don't know why they did that. May just because of the scale. Maybe it was the scale of it was clear cut, like everything was gone, like there was nothing, yeah, there was nothing left. Probably that with the house as well. Um, yeah, everything was gone. I had um a value, maybe a value out of and she asked us for a bit of information on the house, and she worked out the rebuild costs would be more than what we're insured for, so we just got paid out what we were insured for. I think that's how it works. I learned obviously a lot about insurance, as you can imagine.
MandyYeah, I think it there's no sort of anomalies or no uncertainties about the situation, it was clear-cut. So in that situation, they could just pay.
EddieAnd maybe maybe the media coverage of the incident, I don't know, but they were actually pretty good. Um van insurance straight the way, tall insurance paid straight away. ACC, absolute nightmare. They were they were just incompetent. I'd speak to one it take me an hour to speak to one person, they'd say they'd sort it out, then nothing happened. I'd wait a week, call the person, they had no record of any conversation. Take me an hour to speak to that person, they'd say exactly the same. I'd wait another week, then call them again, and again, it was an absolute joke. Like, as an organization, it just made them look so bad. It was one of the most stressful things. I could not work, uh obviously trying to supply for the family. Um, no money coming in. So, yeah, I think I remember talking to the supervisor, the yeah, one of the supervisors, and I told her what had happened, and just the fact what had happened, like not just the injury that I'm trying to claim. Yeah, it was so big that I thought there'd be a little bit more forthcoming. Actually, remembering your name, what had happened, some details to just bring up, but there was nothing. It was yeah, it was so bad.
MandyAnd then there was EQC, how did you go with it?
EddieYeah, so we were quite lucky. We had a family friend who um worked um he's like a geotech, so he knew quite a lot about EQC and what happens when it when claims insurance involved. Um he literally just told us a week after the slip what would happen, took us to site, had a look, um, and in the end they just wrote off the whole section, so you just get paid out what the value of the section is, um, which was yeah, obviously quite good. I think it was just a clear-cut case, yeah. A little bit like the insurance. I think it was just so clear-cut for them. They weren't trying to work out percentages, if you like. I know a lot of people um had a lot of trouble with EQC and insurance because the percentage of the property was only 10% damaged or 20% damaged. So I think, yeah, that's where complications arose.
MandyYeah, and even though they couldn't live in the house.
EddieEven though they couldn't live in their house, they still had to pay rates. And I mean, we still had to pay our mortgage as well. Um, but the bank was also pretty good about that. They gave us a mortgage holiday, um, they actually paid money into our account, um, which yeah, it was pretty good from the bank. Like it's good. Hannah's work was amazing. Like, yeah, they yeah, that was hard because they turned up with a grant probably a grand's worth of food. They turned up with four suitcases for the clothes. Unbelievable. They paid her a week's wages or and just let her have a whole month off paid. Like unbelievable.
MandyAnd then how are you feeling? You know, over the next sort of few months, you obviously were you were starting to heal and your your head was getting better. Did you feel like you had a head injury and you were dealing with that, or did you feel like that kind of went and it was more the emotional trauma that you were dealing with?
EddieUm, I I was dealing with a lot of stress, obviously, with the um ACC and a few other things, like counsel calling me, and just trying to work out what was going to happen initially those months after. The head injury head injuries are weird. You think you're okay, but you're actually not. Like you forget quickly, and you forget a lot of things. Like you put down a cut and then you go back, and it it yeah, you think it's normal, but it disappears. And Hannah's the worst. If I put something down, she'll tidy it up or move it, and then you think that's your head. Um, the head injury, it was difficult. Uh, yeah, you sort of get more stressed, a little bit more angry, and functioning normally is is quite hard. You're definitely not as on to it. But I don't know, I don't think you actually know that at the time. I think it's took me two or three years, especially at work, to think clearly. Because yeah, it really affects you the way you think logically and trying to work out work out things.
MandySo you've experienced this massive trauma that you've never experienced in your life. Yeah. And you have a head injury, so it's actually probably quite hard to know.
EddieYeah, you don't really know what's doing it. Like obviously, stress uh probably has that same effect on you with forgetting and your moods and everything else. Stress is a massive one, isn't it, for most people. They they struggle to deal with that and day-to-day life. Um just trying to do exercise as best I could. I couldn't do much. Going on just mellow bike rides or walks that helped considerably. Just going for a little swim. Um, just not really a swim, just wading in the water, just just that like reconnecting and resetting, as we all should probably do every day anyway. Um, all that helped. Yeah. Obviously losing Craig and Dave, that was on my mind all the time. Um guilt. Guilt because it was our house. Still feel guilty now. Like it just it's hard, it's hard not to. Um yeah, and just wondering what was gonna where we were gonna go as a family, what we were gonna do. We didn't have any closure yet from um what the insurance company was gonna pay out or for the for the land, so we just didn't know we actually started looking at properties in the other areas which were cheaper to try and work out what we're gonna do. We didn't think we'd be able to afford to buy a house again in Mirawai. That was quite hard.
MandyDid you think that you you wanted to stay in Mirawai if you could?
EddieUm yeah. I think we did, like the community was so good, and ev I think everyone saw everyone else at rock bottom. And I think once you see someone at rock bottom, there's nowhere else to go. You've got respect and you've got trust and you just become close to people. Like a lot of people put this front and this facade in front of them because they're scared for people to see them at rock bottom, but yeah, once at everyone's rock bottom and you can rebuild from that, the community got really close. And I think a lot of people said said that as well.
MandySharing each other's vulnerabilities, I think, really brought us all together.
EddieYeah, that's probably the right word. Vulnerability, yeah.
MandyAnd understanding what people are going through.
EddieIf you can show someone you're vulner you're vulnerable, then you obviously trust them quite a lot.
MandySo And did you feel like mentally you were feeling depressed at any point? Did you kind of get to that point?
EddieUm maybe Yeah. I think most probably. Most probably felt quite depressed and maybe a little bit lost as well. Um Yeah, it's quite hard to remember emotions a little bit. It's quite a while, three years, yeah. Being far away from your family as well. Like my family live in England, so I couldn't really share properly what was what was going on and and talk to your family about it, or be close to your family, which is what you want to do in times like that when you're feeling down or depressed, if you like. And so that was that was difficult too.
MandyUm did you get any help either from the community or from outside the community to help process some of that stuff?
EddieUm yeah, the com the community um definitely helped. Um just having friends that are close to you and trust and also been through the same thing. I think that was really important. Um It was actually quite hard to s to talk to people that hadn't been involved in the storm for maybe six months a year because they had no idea. Um and that probably happens a lot with natural disasters or big um big incidences or dramas, if you like, um big events. Uh people probably can't relate to people that haven't been involved in it. So yeah, the community was a definitely a saviour and I think that's probably the same for a lot of people. Most of the community that brought the clothes and the toys and and gave even people gave me surfboards like kites and kiteboards and yeah, that helped a lot.
MandyBecause you're such an active person.
EddieYeah, that just helped me yeah. I can't thank those people enough, really.
MandyLike it's almost like you needed to go back to what you knew and what you loved. Yeah, what was important through it, yeah.
EddieWhat was in what's important in life. Like um Yeah, I when people were were doing that, that yeah, that was amazing. For your mental health, for the depression and the head injury. Yeah, like I say, I can't thank those people enough and not always be indebted to them. Like Yeah, it meant a lot.
MandyAnd how did you find your relationship with with your partner Hannah?
EddieYeah, I I yeah, it was definitely she snapped at me more than she's ever snapped at me ever. Like I definitely saw a different side to her, but maybe that was my head injury um pushing her buttons, really, because um yeah, there was there were arguments and and sometimes you just wanted to escape, whether that be your partner, your kids, you mirror why you you definitely felt like escaping. I think um I don't know if that's just a natural thing to want to do. It was testing.
MandyAnd how about your boys? Are you seeing the effects of such a traumatic event in your boys?
EddieUm, not in the younger one. Nico did say after the storm, he said we'd be driving along in the car, and it'd be look, Daddy, there's a storm, it'd see clouds, and I'd be like, Oh no, it's okay, storms are okay, storms are good, like we need storms, and he said, No, storms break houses. So he obviously knew. Cody is a little bit worried about cliffs and um big trees, and yeah, he's definitely got the danger sort of um awareness. Yeah, he's definitely got the danger awareness, probably a little bit of trauma. Yeah. Um, he was a bit older, obviously, at the time, he was four, so he knew something was going on. He saw me um injured and and everything else going on around him. So whereas Nico was only two.
MandyThree years on, and I think it was actually a year or two ago, wasn't it, that you ended up buying a house up on Owa Road?
EddieYes, yeah. Um actually it was only it was only six months after the storm that the house came up for sale. Um and I yeah, I went to the first open home and and had a look. I quite liked it. It was a bit of a project, there's no doubt about that, as most houses are in Muriwai. Um Hannah wasn't so keen. We went to the next open home, the second one, and I really started to like it. I like the the area, like I just like the garden and the field, and it got heaps of sun, it was flat, felt safe. Then we went actually went to all the open homes and yeah, we managed to um buy it with our insurance money that came through the day of the auction. So it was sort of maybe meant to be in some way. Um but we yeah, we really like it up there. If it feels nice, good open space for the kids, lots of lawn for them to play football or cricket. Um it just feels nice when you know a house feels nice, it yeah, it's important.
MandyYeah, didn't feel put off and didn't feel like you needed to head away.
EddieNo, I think um I actually remember really wanting to move. Maybe it was just when I was able to go surfing or kite surfing again after my injury, just to sort of fix or finish the rehab, if you like. And I was adamant that I wanted to leave Mirawai. This even after we bought the house, but then I went kite surfing one day after work or in the evening, and yeah, that feeling you can't you can't really get that. Yeah, you can't really buy that, you can't really get it anywhere else, I don't think. Mirawai's so special for that. Like um the light, there's yeah, the ocean, and I felt content. I think I had a few times after the storm where I felt so content in Mirawai with being out, surfing, mountain biking out of the kids that it grounded me again and uh made me love Mirawai again and and not want to not want to leave.
MandyI I imagine this experience has really changed how you think about weather in Aotearoa.
EddieYes, yeah, 100%. Um I always had a lot of respect for the weather in New Zealand, it's very different from what I grew up with in in the UK. I always felt like the elements were quite scary over here, whether it be the ocean or or the actual weather itself. Um it's definitely got a feel. You go some places in New Zealand, it's got a f a bit of an atmosphere and a feel, and I think that weather adds to that to that drama. Maybe it's the topography or or just the light, the the different colours you get with with that weather, what's associated with that weather. And then flooding and slips. I feel like since the cyclone happened, our cyclone in in 2023, um the weather, um, the weather websites have are pretty on to it with the warnings. Um but yeah, going forward, I do feel like public places need to be evacuated before before the storm comes.
MandyHow do you think Murrui handled the recovery and restoration process?
EddieYeah, I thought the people that went out of the way in their spare time to create those groups and work and lobby for the residents of Muri. Um, I think everyone appreciated that a lot. Yeah. And just to try and put Muri in the limelight of the public and the media so it got sorted out, the stickers, the sticker situation on houses, the red stickers, the yellow stickers. Um yeah, obviously made the council act quick, or whatever um company needed to act quick, they yeah, they really pushed that for the community. Um which is great. Like anyone to go out their way and they spare their own time not paid. Um yeah, they should get a lot of recognition for that effort.
MandyAnd what do you think you've learned about yourself through this experience?
EddieJust value the simple things in life, um and also try not to worry too much. You yeah, you never really know what's gonna happen if if you like. I think always was, but maybe just being in the moment of whatever you're doing, whether it's surfing or kite surfing, swimming, mountain biking, just take a second and look around you, take take note of what's around you, what the conditions are like, and just have those moments in life that you can actually remember. Don't be too rushed, yeah, don't be too focused on the right on the wrong thing when you're when you're taking part in those activities. Just slow down and enjoy it, take it in and have it as try and m have it as a memory.
MandyWhere are you at now, Eddie?
EddieUm as in mentally.
MandyYeah, and yourself.
EddieUm it has been hard, like yeah, this this um third year anniversary with the inquest just brought it up as if it was just last week, really, like and I've obviously close friends of Lucy and Amy, so it's it's hard seeing them go through it all again and as a family, like with my partner Hannah, we we don't talk about anything else pretty much, like for the last month every day. To be honest, I think I've spoken about the storm every day since it's happened anyway. Um probably a lot of people in Mirua I have spoken about the storm every day for the last three years. Um I hope that after this inquest we can sort of move on a little bit. Obviously, it'll always be there. Craig was a very, very close friend, Dave was a close friend. Um, I used to quite surf with Dave quite a lot, and it was so nice to always be out there with him. Um yeah, he's yeah, he always loved it so much. Craig used to surf with him, and just being from England as well, he had the humour and the banter, and yeah, obviously miss him quite a lot. Um yeah, I don't know. We just try and move forward and as you do in life, I suppose, and and make the best of yeah, what we've got and try and be there for each of us, yeah, I suppose. We're never gonna forget it. We're never gonna forget the storm, we're never gonna forget Craig, we're never gonna get Dave, Lucy, Amy, like Marianne, the kids, they'll never forget those, but hopefully we can just yeah, move on. Move on. I don't know what moving on is after things like that, but maybe yeah. Maybe just have happy memories of Craig and Dave. If that's moving on, then yeah. Happy memories of Craig and Dave, and we go surfing and kite surfing and just remember those boys. Um every time I go out there I remember those boys.
MandySupported by the Auckland Council Recovery Office. Artwork by Tayla Williams, soundtrack by local Muriwai band Tinn People, written in response to Cyclone Gabrielle. Ngaā mihi, thank you to the Muriwai community for their input and bravery and for sharing their stories. And thank you for listening.
