Helicopters continue to rescue people from roofs and fly generators to farflung hills to reboot cellphone towers.
Last evening the government said 25 individuals or groups still needed rescuing
The owner of Wairarapa Helicopters Tim Williams had a crew plucking people from still-flooded parts of Hawke's Bay
A pilot for Tararua Heliwork Dave Bramwell-Cooke says he spent all day flying generators in to farms and to plug the many holes in the electricity network
He has been gobsmacked flying over damaged farms and roads
Tim Williams had to hustle south from Hawke's Bay to fly some people who needed medications from Castlepoint to Masterton
This, after a similar mercy mission 24 hours earlier to Pongaroa between Dannevirke and the coast
His and another crew made return flights to Castlepoint, delivering half a dozen generators to get cellphone towers restarted
Vodafone last evening said it had had 262 sites out, mainly in Northland, Coromandel, Napier and Gisborne
It says it is prioritising 111 calls across the mobile network
