New Summerfruit NZ CEO
Dean Smith has been in the role of CEO of Summerfruit NZ for about four months, having succeeded Kate Hellstrom at the end of September.
He was out at their orchard when the Ngauroro burst its banks and he suddenly turned around and saw the floodwaters lapping at the door of his truck.
"I jumped in and of course the water poured in, but the truck was running, so I decided to get back onto Swamp Road with the water chasing me and it was going as fast as my truck as well," he told Hort News.
"I got through to Omahu and I was trying to escape out there and then I saw the river had breached there as well. So, I headed towards the golf links, near Taradale, and tried to get out that way. By the time I got there the tar seal was floating and the river was raging under the tar seal and it had exploded out - I was absolutely trapped," he says.
Eventually, Cross and a group of about 50 people managed to scramble to high ground where they remained for 2 ½ days until they were able to get out. To add to the drama, a member of the group had a heart attack and it was only by chance that a member of the group had a Starlink phone and they were able to call in a rescue to take the person to hospital.
"It's such an amazing thing when you see a helicopter and you know it's coming to you - it's very uplifting," he says.
