Prime Minister Chris Hipkins (right) with Mark Apatu at Apatu Farms orchard in Dartmoor. Photo: RNZ / Lauren Crimp
Hawke's Bay growers have pleaded with Prime Minister Chris Hipkins for more help to deal with their devastating losses from Cyclone Gabriel.
Grower Ratahi Cross welcomed the prime minister to what was left of his kiwifruit orchard in Waiohiki.
"Sorry to chuck you in the tough end," he apologised to Hipkins, as they waded through a sea of mud and claggy silt, scattered with the broken remnants of fencing, machinery, vines and rotting fruit.
"It's mind-boggling but you know we're here for the long haul. We're born and bred here, we'll keep going. We want to get the region up and going again, but we'll need your help."
Cross, whose whānau has farmed this land for 100 years, said there was a whole community relying on kiwifruit.
However, he made no bones about the fact central government was going to have to foot some of the bill.
"So there's a whole coordinated approach that needs to happen. Gosh, what a time to become prime minister - I hope your bank is full."
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins (front right) talks to Ratahi Cross of Ngāi Tukairangi Trust at his decimated kiwifruit orchard in Waiohiki. Photo: RNZ / Lauren Crimp
Mark Ericksen from the Waima Fruit Company told Hipkins it was not fair that they were paying the price for inadequate infrastructure.
"We've been let down. We've invested millions and millions of dollars all up, families... but it's the infrastructure has failed us. It's like Lotto, there's a lot of people on the other side of the river who haven't been affected and we shouldn't be penalised."
At Apatu orchard in Dartmoor, another grower John Bostock told Hipkins he was looking at $200,000 of damage per hectare.
Insurance would not cover crop losses.
"So our machinery and our sheds are all insured but crops for this type of event are not insurable. You can insure for hail, but that's really expensive and most of us don't at the moment."
Hipkins had been scheduled to visit the embattled northern Hawke's Bay town of Wairoa today but was grounded because the Air Force chopper needs servicing.
However, he did drop in to Hastings aerodrome to talk with some pilots who led the rescue missions, plucking people off the roofs of flooded buildings.
Tukituki MP Anna Lorck (left) and Prime Minister Chris Hipkins (second left) in Hawke's Bay. Photo: RNZ / Lauren Crimp
Kāhu New Zealand pilot Mark Law had been doing supply drops of food, water and fuel to cut-off communities in his Black Hawk.
He told Hipkins that farmers were desperate for roads to be cleared.
"A lot of the little centres, they look pretty good, they're standing up - but the farms and the places cut off, they're the ones really needing assistance."
Speaking to media later, Hipkins indicated he had received the message that more support was needed.
"The start was really about let's get boots on the ground as fast as we can and things happening within days.
"Nearly half of that money is already in the bank accounts of growers and the agriculture sector so they can start that work, and there's more applications being processed every hour."
The government this afternoon announced the terms of reference for the Cyclone Gabrielle Recovery Taskforce to match up local responses with the work of government agencies and the private sector.
The initial focus would be the immediate recovery, but long-term the taskforce was going to cover issues to do with managed retreat, adaptation and resilience.