Chasing cyclones in New Zealand
How do you know whether to trust your gut, the news, or everybody else when in an extreme situation?
An audio version of this post, narrated by me, is available to listen to below:
“You’re going WHERE?” the car-rental woman barks. “To the Coromandel? NOW? Well, you won’t be able to get there, you know. And, if you do get there, you won’t be able to get back. You’ll be TRAPPED.” She seems delighted by the proposition.
It’s Friday 10th Feb and we’re heading to Matarangi, a tiny beach town on the Coromandel Peninsula on New Zealand’s North Island, for a friend’s wedding the next day. The problem is, category 3 cyclone ‘Gabrielle’ is determined to crash the shindig and is racing us there. But the wedding is definitely going ahead (we check) and so we figure that the car-rental woman just loves a bit of drama. The weather is gorgeous and the wedding peeps seem totally chill about it. How much can change in a couple of days?
We snatch the car keys from the tutting doomsayer and skid off to meet Gabrielle – initiating an entirely bizarre exercise in self-reflection. At what point during an impending disaster do you panic? And what determines which ‘authority’ you trust – the news, other people, or your gut – and why?
The ‘most intense tropical cyclone since the 1990s’
One of the main roads to Matarangi, the State Highway 25A (SH25A), has been closed indefinitely after record-breaking rainfall in January caused a huge landslide. However, State Highway 25 (also called the Thames Coast Road) is open – and it’s a ridiculously scenic drive, hugging the ‘Firth of Thames’ bay and snaking up and down the hilly landscape. Each time you corner a hairpin bend, you’re faced with a postcard-worthy scene.
And yet the impact of January’s extreme weather is visible everywhere: collapsed sections of road cordoned off, fallen trees chopped up, and landslip cleared. “Oooh,” we say, biting our lips and chuckling nervously.
When we stop off at a shop, a man points at the umbrellas we’re about to buy and snorts, “They’re not going to be of much bloody use in a cyclone, are they?” We then receive a message from our Airbnb host explaining how when we arrive, we’re welcome to use the surfboards in their shed. Surfboards! Like we’re going to herald the arrival of Gabrielle by surfing in on a 12m wave. Next, a man named Vince at a viewpoint tells us he’s heading home to “secure the roof” – clearly there’ll be no surfing for Vince – and when we tell him we’re leaving on Monday, he says: “Ah no, mate. Y’all need to leave early Sunday. One tree goes down on the SH25 and you’ll be trapped here, eh? Don’t fuck with a category 3 cyclone.”
So are we fucking with a cyclone? I google the local news and the first headline that pops up reads: “New Zealand braces for its most intense tropical cyclone since the 1990s”.
Ah.
Me? Oh yeah, I’m fine with this. Are you fine? Great. Hey! Look at us all being fine.
How did we get into a position where we’re fucking with a cyclone? Why are some people acting like it’s the end of the world and some people like it’s a bit of drizzle? Are we wrong to be nervous? Are we not nervous enough?
And what about the news? Headlines are screaming about the “most serious storm this century”, how the country is “bracing for impact”, and that the “worst is yet to come”. Even traditionally ‘sensible’ news platforms are using incendiary phrasing such as ‘cyclone barrels towards land’, ‘it’s unleashing winds close to 100 mph’ and detailing how the country has been ‘ravaged by floods’. This raises questions not only over how ‘extreme’ weather is reported, but also on the motivations and ethics behind it. (There’s an interesting article on that here.)
A beautiful wedding and ‘playing it by ear’
The wedding is wonderful. Our friends pull out all the stops and the weather holds off for the perfect ceremony overlooking the beach, while the large marquee blocks the wind and rain when it picks up later that evening. Any cyclone chat veers between how “the newspapers and government are over-playing it because they were unprepared in January,” or how people “will play it by ear” and that’s that.
My boyfriend and I decide to leave on Sunday morning though, unfortunately missing day two of the celebrations, but trusting our guts that we’ll be more comfortable on the drive having left a bit early.
At the time of writing (Monday morning), the full impact of the cyclone is yet to be felt (according to the news). All we know so far is that some roads are closed and power is down in several places. We’re sending huge love to all those affected and hope everyone is bunkered down and safe.
Trusting your gut
As a traveller, I’ve been in more dangerous and bizarre situations than the average person – not only to do with weather, by any means – and I find human behaviour when shit gets real fascinating. It’s like we all wait for permission to freak out – with no one wanting to be the first to panic. No one wants to look like a prat. Or a coward. Or be wrong. There is also an innate faith in the ‘rightness’ of the world, that things will simply sort themselves out. What will be will be, etc. Similarly, a “this can’t be happening to me” mindset can lead into more general denial. Then there’s ‘pack mentality’: how we feel better protected in groups even when what we’re facing is fundamentally bigger and more powerful than the group. And never underestimate the reticence to lean into sensationalist headlines or chat (there’s only so much hyperbole we’re willing to swallow).
If everyone’s sandbagging up their house, you’ll sandbag up your house. But if everyone’s looking for the surfboards instead, it’s intriguing to see where you stand.
I did learn that two people we met on the weekend ended up leaving overnight on Saturday. They just trusted their guts and went for it, even if it ended up being unnecessary. At the end of the day, I think trusting your gut is the best and often only thing you can do. But that in turn raises the ever-interesting question of whether we’ve lost, or are losing, the ability to trust our instinct…
And that’s a question to investigate in another piece.
Just one more thing…
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And please let me know in the comments if you’ve ever found yourself torn about what to do in a potentially dangerous situation or if something’s ever felt so ‘unreal’ you ignored your gut?
Until next week! Thank you.
Four days on from the wedding, we’re still stuck in Matarangi thanks to the cyclone causing road closures - so it’s fair to say this was worth freaking out about! But all guests managed to leave the area with time to spare, so I guess it falls into that area between ‘group mentality causing everyone to stay irrationally calm’ and ‘individual concern causing everyone to sensibly leave just before the forecast deteriorated’. Thanks for writing about your experience - and for attending our wedding!