Cyclone Wilma
Cyclone Wilma Friday night 28 January 2011
Cyclone Wilma was no longer a tropical cyclone when it landed over the North Island, releasing a torrent of water instead. Floodings and slips occurred everywhere and it is said that 400mm of rain fell overnight. After the heavy rains a week before, the soils became saturated and undercut, and massive coastal slips occurred, also along the Goat Island marine reserve. Thousands of cubic metres of mud and muddy sand are now within reach of the sea at high tide and will be eaten out very slowly, as clay does not easily wear away. It is a lesson for every countryman where the mismanagement of over a century, now comes home. Our coasts have been grazed, burnt and denuded by stock and possums, ready to slip away. In 50 years time nobody will remember what they once looked like.
The devastation along Goat Island Bay is unimaginable and worth visiting when the tide is low. Failing that, see the pictures below.
 
 

The majestic pohutukawa tree by the lookout has come down, with a large amount of debris, making the already small beach smaller still. Very few pohutukawa trees are now left from those standing here in 1975. Note that the slip lies over the high tide line.

On left a Met image of cyclone Wilma raining out over Northland.
One of the many coastal slips destroyed coastal trees and dropped vast amounts of mud within reach of the sea.
A slip like this may not seem much but it has destabilised the area, leading to further slumps later on, while all this mud eventually enters the sea. The whole high tide line is now under debris and mud.
This amount of brown water was enough to reduce visibility around Goat Island to nil.
The slip begins 50m at the top of the cliff.
A mass of tangled broken branches and soft mud.
Thousands of cubic metres of soft mud now in reach of the sea.