On the pre-election campaign last year, the ACT Party went down to Hokitika, and after a weather event that occurred there, we actually had a delay in people turning up, with one guy telling us that he had to get the chainsaw out to remove the fallen trees that had come down upon his driveway. In fact, it's so bad that the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) has actually written a book specifically on the weather events of the West Coast, explaining that it is the wettest region in New Zealand. There's a table within NIWA's book which tells you about the wind gusts that the West Coast experiences, mostly in Greymouth, Westport, and Hokitika. Having the alps situated along the West Coast ridgeline means that a good proportion of the rivers in that area will flow towards the West Coast, and with extreme rainfall and a rising river, it can take with it vegetation as it moves quickly towards the sea, leaving those towns on the Coast with flooding issues. 