“The worst storm in the 19 years we have lived here.”

As "Global Warming" moves from theory to reality,  this is the general opinion of those living ‘on top of the hill’ at Puhoi, north of Auckland NZ.

Residents were out of power for two days but were among the first to have it restored. The phone was out of action for up to six days for some but not all. Adjacent neighbours faced, for still unknown reasons, either had the phone or didn’t.

VillagePRESS was ‘off the air’ for a week.

A vehicle abandoned on Krippner Rd some days previously, slid with a major loss of hillside down into the valley. Right against the road itself, the edge is perpendicular and a major danger. Council has placed signs around it but repairing the damage will be a major challenge.

Trees have fallen on many properties and reduction of them to firewood for 2009 has taken hours of chainsaw usage. Slips in many places have farm and lifestyle property owners considering the steps that will need to be taken to counteract potential future damage.

This considerable additional work is being restricted by continuing rain.

But for most of us, a rural life still beats ‘living in the city’.

For us here, falling trees wiped out a fowl run, closed off a major access way (the immediate job that morning, and right across the orchard fence.

Water flooded the back of our house and similarly Jessica’s’ house. Spades and rapid actions sent it in minor ‘rivers’ off down the hill. Storage tanks had to be reduced in content to avoid continuous ‘bucketfuls’ of water adding to the flood. The house ponds are all full and the areas of slushy mud are growing as our poor ‘house cows’ have to be restricted -- hay and a small area of fresh grass only.

Adding to this, I have dropped the 4Xwheeler keys and can’t find the spares. Unbelievably on Sunday as I walked along the road, my farm bike supplier, Doug Poland - he far from his home - drove around the corner and took the order for replacement keys - remember, we had no phone either.

Fowls are laying again and milk is abundant -- as are the scheduled jobs we must do over the next few months. Should have bike running again tomorrow after new keys arrive in mail. We hope.