Poppy and Ziggy are making a nuisance of themselves and Ursula Mayo isn’t having it.
“Shoo” she says, ushering the two shih tzu poodle cross pups outside.
“They will jump on you, but they won’t hurt you,” she says, closing the ranch slider of the two-storey home on the hill above Whakatane.
The great grandmother shuffles her bare 77-year-old feet along the wooden floorboards back to the couch.
To her left is a wooden photo frame carved into the word ‘Family’. Each letter has a photograph set into it, including some of Mayo’s 14 grandchildren.
Yet these aren’t Mayo’s photographs. This isn’t her home.
They aren’t her pots or platters stacked in the kitchen. Her beloved brown polar fleece sheets aren’t tucked away in the top of the wardrobe ready for the coming winter.
"It's still not like being in your own home,” she says, stumbling over words as she remembers the treasures she left behind - the brooch her mother gave her, adorned in pearls in a box in her bedroom; her 55-year-old son’s childhood stamp collection; her black leather boots - bought on sale in Wellington for $300 last season.
"It's difficult … you haven't got everything exactly where you want it."
BACKGROUND VIDEO: CHRIS McKEEN
While there’s a long road ahead, the Stevensons are staying put. They're on the hunt for a cheap caravan to park on the lawn while they re-do the house they shared with two daughters. But that won't be until the insurance pays out.
The prospect of returning to Number 18 is too much for Mayo. She now plans to use the insurance money to buy a home in Whakatane.
She's already found a prospect - a tidy red and yellow three bedroom home on Hawera St - close enough to walk to the shops, enough room for the grandkids and a five minute drive to Annette's. It’s also well off the floodplain.
Reporting
Phillipa Yalden
Visuals
Christel Yardley
Copy editing
Matt Bowen
Design and layout
Aaron Wood