Esk Valley

We have moved to Napier for the rest of the week. I wasn’t looking forward to travelling through Esk Valley as this is where a huge amount of destruction happened during Cyclone Gabrielle in February. This valley was a very fertile, vineyard and orchard area. It is now a baron, broken, devastated wilderness. It’s heartbreaking to see. I lived in Hawkes Bay for 20 so know this area well in the days when it was green, fertile and productive.
We passed a lot of heavy machinery fixing roads and bridges, knocking down destroyed houses and flattening dead fruit trees and grape vines.