Four months on from the Hawke's Bay floods, many residents along a stretch of road just outside Napier are still picking up the pieces after losing their homes and livelihoods.
Many of those on Hodgson Rd, in Pakowhai, are still displaced, including John and Linda Hogan, who Seven Sharp met back in late February.
Their home was meant to be an extended family home while the couple moved just metres away, up the garden path so the grandkids could visit at any time.
The Hogans lost almost everything in the floods.
However, some precious items managed to be saved, including John's rugby league life member blazer.
"A very, very close friend of ours took all our clothes and she drycleaned them. She washed them four or five times to get the silt out and she restored my blazer," John said.
"That's the type of people that are around here and we're friends with so we were over the moon with that — keeps us going."
Also among the items brought back to life were some precious wedding photos which had been lovingly restored by Fujifilm.
"What a great skill they got. That wedding photo. Linda said, 'Bugger, we're married now'," John said.
The biggest problem for the residents by far is the waiting game, as the authorities decide whether they can rebuild their damaged homes.
"We've really been living with family, and we're living out of a suitcase.
"Some days we feel like, a beautiful day like today, why aren't we rebuilding and why aren't we getting stuck in and getting it back to normal?"
John said the situation has meant they are living "in limbo" as they wait for answers.
"It's a terrible, terrible feeling to wake up every morning, not knowing your future and they won't make a decision. We need someone with some balls who will make a decision.
"We haven't got 20 years. We want to get on with our lives. We're retired.
"This is just putting us in limbo and we're relying on other people when we've never been that way."
Just doors away from the Hogans lived Alastair Needes and his wife Ali, who lost their home and dogs in the floods.
That fateful day, he lost his "business partner" Duke, a yellow Labrador rehomed from a client; Nora, a six-year-old German Shorthaired Pointer; and Ziggy, a rehomed dog who was set to start work with the Department of Corrections the following week.
"Obviously our home was uninhabitable, and you saw my caravan had floated half a kilometre down the road," he told Seven Sharp.
"There was a lot of guilt and I was blaming myself for some of the decisions that I made."
He decided to "make a good thing out of this" and "be a better person" — and the good karma followed.
The Needes received donations of clothing, food and money. A client turned friend also allowed him to park his caravan in her paddock, and set him up with power and water.
Despite their circumstances, he told Seven Sharp he's "really happy here".
He's also received offers of canine friends from "literally from all over the countryside".
"People said, 'Hey, I would like to give you a puppy.'"
He now has two dogs, including Noel, a 10-year-old Cocker Spaniel and Ollie, who he received from a breeder in Taupō.
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