We have a holiday cottage about 15 minutes from Matakana (an hour north of Auckland) and when we arrived at the weekly Saturday Farmers' Market this morning at 8.00am we found that it had been flooded overnight along with the shops at the lower level of the village.
More than 200 mm of rain fell in this area overnight and the normally peaceful stream that runs alongside the village and market had turned into a raging river during the night bursting its banks and flooding the surrounding area.
seen inside all the shops and in the Village Bookshop display stands had been knocked over and books could be seen in the mud.
Two of our other favourite places,Piece Gallery and Matakana Market Kitchen, have also sustained a lot of damage.
The Bookman wishes bookshop owner Tracey, and her staff, Sylvia and Sharleen, and gallery owner Emma all the best for the big clean-up job and a speedy return to normal business. Thinking of you all.
Thank you for sharing the news Graham, I have just returned from the South and missed the storm, and I didn't realize that it has been so bad. I am with you wishing all shop owners and Matakana residents a speedy return to normal life and business.
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Kind of ironic that 3 days before there was a blog post about Ken Ring's predictions for no cyclones until March and for a dry weekend.
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