On Thursday morning the machine was sitting in the yard of his Balaclava property.
That afternoon, it took a trip to Caversham, around 250m down the hill, along with Mr Davis’ cherry trees.
The machine was part of a torrent of debris which cascaded down the hill and ended up on Kelvin Pearce’s property in Lindsay Rd.
Mr Pearce featured in yesterday’s Otago Daily Times, cleaning up after the sixth such deluge in recent years.
Mr Pearce said he was fed up with an inadequate culvert, which he blamed for causing flooding problems for him and his neighbours.
Up the hill, Mr Davis was not any happier.
"All the stormwater from 80 properties goes to a pipe on our property and I have told them [the Dunedin City Council] over and over and over that a 300mm pipe can’t cope," he said.
"It’s a lack of planning on the DCC’s part when they built up this area ... There’s a lot of properties up there and only one way for the water to go."
Heavy rain often resulted in his his property being adversely affected, Mr Davis said.
Debris that tumbled down his property went on to strike Mr Lindsay’s and his neighbour’s properties, and then ran off on to Rockyside Tce.
The most severe storms could result in debris ending up on the Southern Motorway.
Mr Pearce was back on clean-up duty yesterday.
He said Mr Davis’ chipper was now under tonnes of mud, as the laborious task of putting things right continued.
"I’ve got trenches in my driveway now," he said.
Dunedin City Council transport group manager Richard Saunders said overall the stormwater system had performed well, given the significant amount of rain which fell in Dunedin on Thursday.
"There will always be some issues in an event like this," he said.
"We encourage residents to contact us directly with any concerns, so staff and contractors can follow them up."
