A "flash flood" has carved a path of destruction through a small rural settlement in the Motueka Valley, sending weary residents back to square one.
Record rainfall has caused widespread damage across Nelson-Tasman, with Ngātīmoti hit by devastating floods not once, but twice in two weeks.
Shiloh Hobi's serene demeanour belied the sheer scale of destruction caused by Friday's rain as he showed RNZ what was once a small creek at the back of his property.
The land had been gouged out by floodwater, leaving behind it piles of silt and splintered wood in what locals estimated was a trail a couple of hundred metres long.
Ngātīmoti resident Shiloh Hobi, on Sunday, after having slash come through his property. Photo: RNZ/Samuel Rillstone
Hobi said the creek had only just been cleared of the mess caused by the flooding two weeks ago when Friday's rain hit - bringing with it a shocking amount of new slash.
"Thousands of tonnes of logs and silt... has come down and probably hundreds of tonnes of soil washed out to the sea that is impossible to be measured.
"I am very glad that it [the slash] stopped here, because if that had gone down into the school and houses down the road - that would have been absolutely devastating."
The source of the slash was a forestry block on steep land about two kilometres upstream, Hobi said.
He guessed a dam of water - caught behind trapped logs - reached at least five metres high before it burst - releasing a flash-flood of soil and silt into the settlement below.
"We heard the huge boulders and the logs ... it's very noisy, very noisy.
"No one really knows what happens, because it's so wild when a flood like this comes and so many logs together - it's absolutely unpredictable."
Slash in Ngātīmoti, on Sunday, following flooding and heavy rains. Photo: RNZ/Samuel Rillstone
Hobi said the forestry company had been very responsive, but its representatives were left speechless by what they saw on Saturday.
"They didn't know what to say because they themselves were absolutely shocked that so much has come down, so much has collapsed."
It was clear forestry practices needed to change, he said, noting that the recent damage - on top of what people were already facing - had left some reeling.
"But I have found that anger is never a solution to anything. It maybe activates us to do something, but I think real decision-making needs to comes from a place of peace.
"I see a future where this kind of complex situation can be solved."
Photo: RNZ/Samuel Rillstone
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