It's just as well Justin Patterson has good mates, caring neighbours and family nearby.
Paraparaumu resident Justin Patterson moves his furniture. Photo: RNZ / Gareth Thomas
This morning they all came to his rescue after his home on the Kapiti Coast was flooded.
Read more about the weather on the Kapiti Coast
About 10 people mucked in to help retrieve belongings from the Paraparaumu property and he used his boat to ferry stuff from the house to a hire truck.
Later, fire crews from as far as away as Manawatu turned up to start pumping water from his partly submerged house.
After his boat came in handy, they used his whitebait net as a filter to stop debris blocking the main storm drain.
He even had a plan for tonight: "Open the liquor cabinet."
The Kapiti Coast District Council has opened an emergency welfare centre but Mr Patterson will stay with relatives until the house is fit to live in again.
Further down the road in Raumati, 87-year-old Norma Nicholson is another evacuee.
Her place looks fine and habitable. However, she's just one house away from the swollen and fast-running Wharemauku Stream.
Gone is the clear water, replaced with what looks like liquid milk chocolate. The bottom of her road is flooded, so authorities have decided it's best for her to stay away.
Mrs Nicholson said the area had had bad flooding previously - in the late 90s - but never this bad.
When her daughter in Auckland heard about the torrential rain and flooding she hopped straight on a plane to be with her mum.
Unfortunately, services into and out of Kapiti Airport were cancelled and her flight was diverted to Palmerston North, prolonging a mother and daughter reunion.
North of Paraparaumu, some students decided to take advantage of a new lake: several of them were seen swimming or walking waist-deep in the flooded Otaihanga Domain.
But they beat a hasty retreat when someone raised concerns about raw sewage.
A young man in flood waters on the Kapiti Coast. Photo: RNZ / Gareth Thomas