Andrew and Cathie Gould have spent a week trying to replant the olive trees they lost when the tornado tore through their orchard. Photo: LDR/ Waimea Weekly / Max Frethey
Clean-up and repairs are on the mind of affected residents after a tornado tore across the Moutere Hills on Easter Monday.
The tornado - which is thought to have formed somewhere in Gardener Valley - knocked out power by throwing a shed into a power line before it wreaked havoc along Petra Way, just off Old Coach Road.
Cathie and Andrew Gould have an olive orchard along Petra Way where about 200 trees - just six weeks from harvest - were uprooted, with many thrown dozens of metres away and some even landing on roofs.
"They just became missiles," Cathie said.
Since last Tuesday, the couple have been working hard with the help of many of their friends to save as many of the trees as they can by, on the advice of an arborist friend, pruning the branches to conserve their water and replanting those without major root damage as quickly as possible.
"That's the plan to try and rescue them," Cathie said. "They've been in the ground 15-18 years, so we don't want to lose them."
About 200 olives were torn up by the tornado, just six weeks away from harvest. Photo: LDR / Waimea Weekly / Max Frethey
During the clean-up, Andrew said he's found "the oddest things" in the debris which he suspects came from someone's garage: screwdrivers, sprinklers, a bicycle, a kayak paddle, and, unfortunately, many birds which had been caught in the vortex.
A ride-on lawnmower was also thrown around in the tornado and one of their trees caught a neighbour's mangled trampoline.
They also found the extremely localised damage from the tornado interesting to see first-hand.
"You've got houses right next to all this [damage] completely untouched," Andrew said.
Kenny Cripps' house, however, was not so lucky.
No one was home when the tornado came by his home, though that might have been fortunate.
The tornado tore up the tarseal on the road outside which then battered his house and cars with the chunks of rock, smashing windows and leaving damage that he describes as similar to that left by machine gun fire.
Kenny Cripps' house was hammered by the tornado, with a tree going through the roof and tarseal smashing the windows. Photo: LDR / Waimea Weekly / Max Frethey
The house has been yellow-stickered - the tree that went through the roof is to blame for that, Cripps said. Fixing it was his first priority the day after the tornado hit.
"Luckily that's what I do for a living."
He also had a timber gazebo that was concreted to the ground, which has disappeared.
"I don't know where it is at this stage," he said. "Can't find it, even the bits of it."
After tearing through Petra Way, the tornado made its way down to the Coastal Highway/State Highway 60 where it threw some large pines across the road before it hit Westdale Road.
Glenys Robertson lives on the northern end of Westdale Road. She saw the tornado come down through her garden, though it left her house alone.
"I didn't know what to think," she said. "I was just sort of watching it thinking 'what's going to happen next?'"
The answer to that question was a lightning strike that hit her driveway.
"It was like a big fireball."
Luckily, the lightning didn't damage anything, but the tornado knocked over dozens of trees in her garden, and destroyed her pump shed which temporarily left her without water.
"And my bridge that goes across my pond, all the trees have come down on that as well," she said. "I'm disappointed, our trees all looked so nice."
Glenys left the cleaning up until after Friday, when her partner got back from down south and her son got his chainsaw fixed to help deal with the trees that came down across her driveway and around her property.
The tornado, which struck around 1.20pm during Easter Monday's extreme weather event, affected about 50 properties, according to Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ).
FENZ also reported that a tree had fallen onto a car with a person inside in Māpua, but they escaped the vehicle without requiring assistance and reported only minor abrasions.
No other serious injuries have been reported.
"We are extremely lucky that no one was hurt as a result of this incident," FENZ assistant commander for Nelson Marlborough Paul Manson said
He said the damage was "quite significant," with several roofs being partially or fully lifted by the tornado.
Pine trees along the Coastal Highway/State Highway 60 were thrown onto the road Photo: Supplied / Waka Kotahi
After the tornado, two houses were red-stickered and six had been given yellow stickers on Tuesday 11 April. One week later, as of 2pm Tuesday 18 April, seven houses now had yellow stickers with no red stickers remaining.
Tasman District Council has waived consent fees for rectifying the damage done to buildings and organized the removal of debris, like roofing material, from affected houses.
Despite the damage, Manson said the community had demonstrated its resilience and rallied together.
"The emergency services have supported where they can, but actually the neighbours getting in and helping throughout - we just can't ask for better. It's a real humbling feeling to be able to support them."
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