The day was 07 March 1988 when the cyclone hit, one of the hugest disasters of it's time in NZ... it was also a time when we preferred to be anywhere but school or home. Hanging out with ya mates was our religion. We had a couple of crazy blokes in the 'gang' who tried to lead us girls into some freaky scenarios but being Northland girls we were pretty head strong! Sometimes there were exceptions and we went with the flow...
This is the story of one of those exceptions.....
The cyclone I remember was the most 'massivist' storm I had ever experienced. The back of our farm used to flood when the heavens opened up anyway, but this time the water flowed from the Punakitere River on our border right up to the cow paddock by the house (over half a dozen big paddocks in between)!! The wind! Man the wind blew with a force so severe you would've done triple somersaults to Timbuktu! They even gave it a name this Cyclone as they do (like Gertrude?, Lisa?, Katrina etc)....CYCLONE BOLA (search on the google search button on right if ya wanna read more about it with other sites).
Yep the cyclone 'bowled' us for a six! We had a 3 wheeler farm bike at the time and when the place flooded Dad pumped up the tyres a bit more on the motorbike and turned the buggar on, and away we went...tyres spinning quickly as we were brimming over the top of the water like those peddle boats except with a motor, but movin' fast WOOHOO!I guess he was lookin at the foreseen clean up and mess, but us kids were stoked! Yearh, Dad changed the bike into a motorised boat and my siblings were pirates! HAHARGH me mateys! The Geckos (lizards) left stranded would jump up on our gumboots to be saved so it quickly turned into search and rescue mission... "Save the Geckos!".
Anyway, you know how a weather catastrophe is followed by big ocean swells..well my mate had a 'brilliant' idea (used to call him the phantom farter! Say no more..). "Hey mate, surfs up! Lets go!".. nice one bro... Yep..... we took off to the Opo heads (Opononi) which is insane on a normal day let alone after a Cyclone had been a brewing.I stood there staring out at the thunderous momentum of each wave... wondering why I was actually doing this? Wondering why I all of a sudden I was insane. Wondering if anyone else was thinking what I was thinking! Thinking, thinking. thinking.... quickly stopped that coz just zipped up the wetty and ran down the beautiful tera-firma with the boys, had to get towed out behind my 'phantom farter' mate. Sheez! Sitting on top of the rolling swell, rising up...."awesome can see the others on the beach!"... ducking down..."ooooh damn, they've gone again, maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all" .
I bit the bullet and paddle, paddle, paddled...heart pumping....feel the rush coming! "I'm up, I'm up!", schooning down the face of the wave...steadfast to the small shape beneath my feet...the moment in time where you feel surreal without a care... the moment is longer than what you can see with the naked eye. Could see the peel of the wave out of the corner of my eye so I gotta get ready to stop the ride before it closes out on me....YEEAAAARRHHHH!
Cruising in to the shore steering the board in that general direction, feeling like I was reborn again.... no shit! That was actually the most dangerous but the most fantastic thrill I have ever and will probably ever experience in my life.... lookin' back we were bloody mad...but lookin' back we bloody loved being bloody mad!....and I conquered Cyclone Bola thanks to that crazy mate we called the 'phantom farter'....
A Day In the Nearlly Short Lived Life Of A Crazy Kiwi.
