Dixie's unbroken spirit 'I WILL NEVER LEAVE MY HOME'

The stoic Northlander lives in fear that all she owns could go up in smoke, but she's staying to fulfil the sacred work she began in the area as a child

- Aroha Awarau

When hundreds of tiny black specks flew into and around her home in the tiny Far North settlement of Kaimaumau, Dixie CookTamati initially thought she was being attacked by a swarm of sandflies.

But when those specks turned into tiny flames, the mother-of-three realised they weren't sandflies at all but hot ash, coming from a nearby scrub fire. The Northland inferno, which started on December 18, has been one of the largest scrub fires in recent New Zealand history, destroying 2800-hectares of mostly wetland scrub and rampaging in the Far North's Waiharara region for more than a month.

The 62-year-old's life and the lives of the 100 families living in the close-knit community were in danger, and they had to evacuate their homes immediately.

“There was thick black smoke on one side of the home, like it was midnight and the sky went all red," Dixie recalls. “On the other side of the home, it was as clear as day. We had to move quickly. Nothing like this has happened in our community before. It was a real shock."

The police were going door to door, ensuring people were evacuating. Dixie says they didn't have time to pack. Luckily, many families already had emergency supplies and clothes packed due to frequent tsunami warnings within the beachside settlement. Residents left their homes with uncertainty and took refuge with either family members outside of the area or at the local Waiharara school. Dixie opted to stay with her daughter.