The Country 08/07/26: Adam McManaway talks to Hamish McKay

A Kaikōura dairy farm owner discusses the damage to his property after severe flooding, the clean-up challenge, lost pasture and infrastructure, and support from the local farming community.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, yesterday of course it was all unfolding, all un
panning down there on at Kaikoura on the Ease coast
top of the South Ireland. We're going to head there
now to on the owners of a schoolhouse dairies just
out of kai Kurral where the flood banks burst. Adam
mcmanaway joins us now local farmer down there, Adam, thank

(00:22):
you for joining us.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
How are things looking for you today? Not too good.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
We've got a bit clean up ahead of us to
try and sort everything out, to try and get the
gairy firm back operational. Just a big mess with gravel,
trees and fence lines and things to fix. Tracks of
washed away and the bridges are missing.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
How wide is the damage in the community? I mean,
how many other farms would you say have been hit
like you have.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
None?

Speaker 3 (00:52):
We've got one next door, sign Mackel and he's got
Luke's Creek that runs through his place. But we've got
Luke's Creek Middle Creek into the Wyming that all meet
up at our farm. So there were three of them burst.
The beings Middle Creek did it in like three places,
and the Wayming did it in about three or four
and took out the stop bent completely. So we're probably
the worst. We're at the lowest point of the flat,

(01:13):
so everything kind of ends up running through our property.
But there's lots of houses that got evacuated and maybe
had like a meter of water run through the houses,
Lots of like wheat paddocks and mudd everywhere.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
We knew some weather was coming, But how quickly did
this come in? Really, you know, the actual effect of
the actual actuality of it happening.

Speaker 3 (01:35):
We did have two to three days of warning, but
like the rivers and the creeks around here can probably
only handle eighty to one hundred and twenty miles of
rain in a twenty four hour period, and we got
three hundred. So it was just way too much for
them to be able to contain contain them. So yeah,
that's where the worst of the damages happened, just from

(01:55):
the how quickly it did turn up.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
What's the clean up time look like for you? Then?

Speaker 1 (02:01):
I mean, because right now you'll just be looking at
this and get I guess saying, where do I start exactly?

Speaker 3 (02:06):
We've got eight days until the cows come back from
from grazing, and half the farms, you know, just a
mess at the moment, covered in salt and gravel and trees,
and we've got no fences, so it's going to be
quite a big job. It's probably six to eight months,
i'd say, to be able to actually get it cleaned
up to you know, to the point that was before
we've got we've got four or five diggers here near

(02:29):
like trying to get the water to go back in
the creek. Because it's a wood to the Wiping River.
It's still cut a channel through the farm, so that
they're trying to dig it out and make a channel
big enough to be able to get the water to
flow back into the river. And we've got a bulldozer
and some dump trucks on their way to start carting
some shingle and to build the tracks back up.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
When you get a dump of rain like that, that's
three hundred mills and that past is still sitting underwater,
how what's.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
The recovery period for that feed?

Speaker 3 (03:00):
Most of it will need like working up and receding
because it's got such a big layer of selt on top.
The pettics that have just had some like stagnant water
on and they have gone away, they'll probably find in
a few weeks. But it's you know, it's the pasture
that's covered and celt and stuff that isn't going to
bounce back. So probably a third of the farm we'll

(03:20):
need regrassing. And all of our paddocks are quite wet
petics and they've all got overflow drains to open drains,
and all the open trains have been filled up with
shingle and gravel as well now, so we've got a
massive job just trying to get the drainage working again.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
We're talking with Adam mcmanaway's schoolhouse Daeries owner with his
partner wife down there in Kaikura with the flood banks burst.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
What consumes does this raise for you for the future?

Speaker 1 (03:47):
You know, like as you said, you know, you think
you have capability to handle up to maybe two hundred meals,
but then three hundred miles comes.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
I mean, what what's your sort of long term view?

Speaker 3 (04:00):
Well, we're going to have a messive loss of production
for the season because there's going to be so much
leand out of commission. So our biggest thing at the
moment is just trying to get a couple of pedic
set up so at least in eight days time when
all the cows come back to the Dary farm, we've
got somewhere to put them, and we've got taken out
the water lines and irrigation lines and everything else. So

(04:21):
we've got to try and start getting the you know,
the main infrastructure back up and running a couple of
bridges back and so we can actually get the cows
to the cow shed from the peddock. That's probably our
main thing to try and you know, get started on
and then just try and fix the other stuff as
we go.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
Ye. Uh, Support what what sort of support is in
place sort of for you on a community level, local level,
local government level.

Speaker 3 (04:48):
We've had all the local farmers rung up because they've
sort of driven past and seen how bad our place
is and offer support and you know, their time and
labor to come and help us to try and revive
fences and like that. So that's been really good with
head Empire ring to help to offer support. The local
council has a meeting with Ken this afternoon and they're

(05:09):
going to do what they can as well. Local contractors
have given their support, so it has been really good.
The local community in Kaikura is awesome for for supporting
other people and I'm sure you know they're all going
to help.

Speaker 1 (05:27):
Yeah, Adam, as gap ranging as this is at the
moment for you, you do you know I can sort
of just see underpinning your attitude as you will be optimistic,
you will be resilient, and yeah, we wish you all
the very best for the next As you say, it
could be six to eight months before we get up
and running, and hopefully they'll be well the measures put

(05:48):
in place so that this doesn't happen to you again.
But we appreciate you taking your time to join us,
and we'll leave you to get to get on with
the job that is. Adam mcmanaway there from the schoolhouse, dreies,
just out of curl