Cyclone Gabrielle: Family returns home to flood-hit Hawke’s Bay house to find a pig asleep on muddy mattress

Among the broken furniture of their mud-soaked Fernhill home, the Smith family heard a noise coming from the bedroom ...

As Michael Smith opened the door he found this little piggy lying in bed.

The family’s experience of the terrifying rising water that swept through Korokipo Rd was awful.

Michael, his wife Stacey, brother Jake and their three children Bella, William and Samuel, were trapped on the roof of their home until a helicopter pilot picked them up.

Stacey says that their sense of humour remained intact, even if their home wasn’t.

And when they found the pig on return to the house, it was the laugh they all needed.

"The pig, he’s not ours, but he keeps hanging out. He’s been such a light reprieve for us. The kids love him, he’s been really entertaining for them," she told Hawke’s Bay Today.

For now, they’ve named him Lucky and they’ll eventually return him to his owner when it’s possible to do so.

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission.