The Aftermath of the Storm

 I went up to Horokiwi to check on the horse yesterday and it was a disturbing and eventful trip. Horokiwi was hit hard by the stormy weather of last week. Power lines knocked down (I think they had no power for quite some time), huge pine trees blown over (sometimes breaking down fences with them) and several land slips. Just driving past all the destruction was like travelling through a post-apocalypse town (after a relatively small apocalypse).

About halfway up the hill I noticed a flash of bright blue and silver bumper off the side of the road. For those of you unacquainted with the topography of Horokiwi, the main road is narrow and winding. On one side of the road is the wall of the hill with bits of land that seem to crumple onto the road, and on the other side is a sheer drop above the quarry. We stopped the car to get out and see what was down there and it was a car which had driven off the side of the road. The car was completely vertical about 10 metres below the road and the only thing that prevented it from descending further was a lip in the hill with several trees that the car was crashed into. Fortunately no one was in the car. The doors were open and there were footprints of people who had clambered out and climbed up to the road but it was an unnerving sight. It is disturbing to think that if you have to swerve or you slide off the road, you have nowhere to go but over the edge of a huge hill.

The second alarming event happened only about 1/2 km up the road. We continued driving up only to being faced with a mare and her foal standing in the middle of the road. I got out with carrots and halter and lead-rope but they were pretty freaked. The foal was lame but when the mare panicked and took off up a driveway, it managed to hobble after her. (I say hobble but this was impressively swift hobbling - faster than I could run at any rate). After a great deal of running around and bribing horsies with carrots, we managed to get them shut in a small paddock off the side of the road and phoned up the owner. Horsies are safe now - hopefully.

I just hope there are not too many more storms like that again soon.