A Maheno dairy worker, trapped on his motorcycle by chest-deep floodwaters, had to be rescued in the Kakanui Valley yesterday.
Omotosho Aina (34), a Nigerian, said he had experienced snow during four previous seasons working in Ashburton, but was a stranger to flooding.
''I've never seen anything like that in my life. It was really strange,'' he said.
Mr Aina was keen to get to work from his Muldrew Rd home just after 7am and thought his two-wheeled motorcycle could handle the floodwaters he encountered in Kakanui Valley Rd.
''But it got deeper,'' he said.
His motorcycle got stuck and he could not go forward or back. The water, flowing towards him, continued to rise until it was up to his chest.
He was able to make an emergency 111 call before his mobile phone got wet and Central South Island Helicopters, from Hampden, was called out. Before the helicopter arrived, a neighbour also going to work saw Mr Aina,
threw him a rope and pulled him and his motorcycle out.
Mr Aina was then picked up by the helicopter and taken home to dry out and warm up. By that time, his house was also isolated by flooding.
Later, Mr Aina successfully made it to work, riding with his employer, Lawrence Bartley, on a tractor.
Mr Bartley said it was also his first season as a sharemilker on the dairy farm and he did not realise how bad flooding could get in the area.
He went out in his truck and struck one patch, not far from where his worker was rescued, where the water was over the vehicle's bonnet.
