PHOTO: SIGRID CHRISTIANSE
RURAL Kiwis are prepared for any situation. So naturally, Kopaki resident Alex Robertson, pictured, had a chainsaw in his ute when he was stopped by a fallen tree blocking
Mangaotaki Rd on Tuesday morning.
“It’s only been here for five minutes,” he said, before chopping it up and clearing it away with the help of other residents and carrying on to his work as a fencer on Puketiti Station, Haku.
The spot on Mangaotaki Rd, about 11km south of Piopio, is known as one where trees often fall in windy conditions.
After a wet, windy Monday night, the road was littered with leaves and debris, a sign that many other locals had been doing the same thing.
Cyclone Gabrielle led to heavy rain and winds in the Waitomo district, but the region mostly escaped the worst of the cyclone.
