'We're there to help' - Agricultural volunteering club works in cyclone-hit Hawke's Bay

Handy Landy volunteers from Lincoln University cleaning out a shed at Rissington Cattle Company. Photo: Supplied

A group of students from Lincoln University has spent the week shovelling silt and repairing fences on cyclone hit Hawke's Bay farms.

The 10 students from agricultural volunteering club Handy Landys have have been spending time on different properties around Hastings.

Chairman Sam Back said it had been a confronting week.

"On Monday and Tuesday we went out to a local orchard that had been hit pretty bad and did heaps of odd jobs for the owner.

"We did some fencing and waterblasted his house, because it had been completely flooded, then we headed up to a sheep and beef farm up in the hills and we ripped down a fence that had been smashed by all the slips."

Handy Landy volunteers from Lincoln University help with fencing on a cyclone-hit property in the Hastings area.

The students help with fencing on a cyclone-hit orchard in the Hastings area. Photo: Supplied

The damage was eye-opening, and seeing how powerful the water had been unreal, Back said.

Handy Landys did some fundraising for affected farmers straight after the cyclone, he said, but it had been great to get up there to help with some of the physical work.

The highlight had been the relief on the farmers' faces when the volunteers show up. "They know we're there to help and some have been surprised by the amount of work we've been able to get through.

"Something that might take them two weeks, our bigger group can get done in a day or two, so it's been pretty rewarding."

source: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/country/493330/student-volunteers-help-farmers-in-flooded-hawke-s-bay