Parts of Dunedin had their wettest day in more than a century, which resulted in flooding, landslips and loved possessions ruined.
South Dunedin resident Stu Campion spent his night pumping water out of his low-lying garage on Forbury Rd, where he keeps various vintage sports cars he is working on.
All was going well until the sewerage system stopped pumping sewage out to sea.
"When it stopped pumping, it all just came up within minutes and I had to go run, shut doors, secure what I could and get out.
"The catchment in this area has increased, but what hasn’t increased is the drainage — this issue is as simple as that."
In the front of his garage was a Vauxhaul DX 1935 racer, which was saved from the water by being on stilts.
His other vintage sports cars were another story.
"This one, the 1935 racer will survive, but the other one, the 1937 Chevrolet, won’t and I just put a $10,000 motor in it ... the water will have gone through the gearbox of the motor, inside it all as well," he said.
Mr Campion, 80, was not sure whether starting his Chevrolet restoration from scratch was on the cards.
His garage flooded in the 2015 South Dunedin floods — causing $54,000 worth of damage — which prompted him to invest in a hose to pump out the water.
"The damage this time round will be much costlier than 2015," he said.
Yesterday on Portobello Rd, Greg Ryder was startled by a loud rumble about 9.30am.
Outside his house, a large landslip had taken out his driveway and buried one of his vehicles.
"We looked out the window of our house and and there was a huge slip falling over the driveway, taking out one of our cars and moving down the hill."
The slip prompted Mr Ryder and his family to head to a safe shelter point in case their home was next.
Neighbour Shaun Campbell, who shares the driveway, heard the slip and along with other neighbours sprang into action to dig out the vehicles.
"A great bloody rumble and it all just came down on their vehicle."
Mr Campbell helped dig the car out, rolling boulders out of the way to create a path for at least one vehicle to escape.
"It was a little bit of a scary night ... I felt movement while lying in bed and just thought ‘is that a slip coming?’ so we packed bags — we were 50:50 on whether to leave or not.
Around the city people were doing their part to minimise the damage.
St Clair resident Di Walser exited her house with a hand-held gardening fork to clear some drains before she witnessed the fast-moving river her street had turned into.
"It was a noble idea, but I don’t think my little fork is going to be much help," she said.
On Portobello Rd, Neil George had spent two hours with a pitchfork clearing a drain along the road, completely clearing a large flood-puddle from the road.
"Hopefully, this minimises the damage because who knows how long the repair job after all this will take."
