The sun has come out from behind the clouds of Cyclone Fili, which has left a trail of destruction across Wairoa and Tairāwhiti, Gisborne.
A road to nowhere, the Ruakituri Bridge buckled and bent after weeks of relentless rain.
"When you don't have sunshine for 11 days you know it takes its toll," resident Nuku Hadfield says.
Hadfield lives in the valley and took Emergency Management Minister Kiri Allan for a drive to survey the damage.
Relentless heavy rain has changed the landscape in parts of rural Wairoa.
At the end of March, it rained for 11 days in a row, so Cyclone Fili just added insult to injury.
"Some of these slips could happen now even though the rain has stopped. The soils are so wet that we could have a slip just out of the blue now," Hawke's Bay Regional Council Civil Defence duty manager Nathan Heath says.
Across the two regions, residents woke to dozens of closed roads and thousands were without power.
As predicted, isolated communities were cut off or reduced to just one access.
"Really isolated and if you know you might be alright for three to four days but it's when it starts to get to one to two weeks," Allan says.
After seeing the extent of the damage, Allan announced $100,000 for the Wairoa Mayoral Relief Fund.
"This community is really hurting. This is a huge confidence boost for them," Wairoa Mayor Craig Little says.
It’s going to be weeks before people can even walk across the Ruakituri Bridge again.
"So from here to Wairoa town, it will take you 20 minutes. From here to get to Wairoa town with the bridge, it will take you an hour and a half," Allan says.
But for now, people are just grateful to have the power on and have the sun shining.
