Like other rural North Otago schools, Five Forks was closed on Tuesday and Wednesday due to flooding.
Caleb Ludemann (12) went with his father to shift some sheep in the rain, but the truck got stuck, so they had to go home and get their motorcycles.
"We got soaking wet. We had to change our clothes," he said.
Mackenzie Sim (10) went for a drive and saw the rivers were really high - "we went through lots of water" - and helped split wood in the rain, while her sister Kendal (12) helped their father shift sheep down from higher ground because it was snowing. That was "way better" than school, she reckoned.
Matt Parsons (11) helped dig trenches to stop drains blocking, while Tayla Ludemann (10) said she definitely did not miss school.
Renata Burnett (9) watched the nearby Kauru River from her home and the water was "rushing really hard and it got all dirty".
"We took the hood off our old truck, went to our paddock and went skiing in the water," Mark Douglas (9) said.
Principal Cate Bole had tried to keep the children from splashing in puddles yesterday. "They had two days to play in puddles. They're not allowed to at school."
The school's bus route was still disrupted due to abutment damage on the Kauru River bridge on Kakanui Valley Rd.
