Flooding brings eels to the streets of Masterton

For many across New Zealand, last week's so-called weather bomb was a bit of a damp squib.

But for others, it brought rain, flooding and… eels?

In a video uploaded to YouTube on Friday, eels can be seen swimming through the streets of Masterton.

"F***ing raining in Masterton, a storm, our street's flooded," says narrator Jermaine Kerehi, as he wanders down a driveway towards a flooded gutter.

"I'll show you something buzzy," he promises. "Have you ever had this shit in your town? We've got mother****ing eels!"

The camera pans down and sure enough, there's an eel.

"Look at this shit," the cameraman exhorts. "Eels in the mother****ing gutter! Cheap feed."

More eels can be seen down the street, including one in shallow water, which appears to be dead.

"Still alive or what, cuz?" the man asks. "Go, swim away!"

Mr Kerehi nudges the eel with his foot, and it springs to life.

"That's the one," the man says. "Go down that way where all your other homeboys are."

He then wanders further down the road, where there are more eels.

"Look at this shit," he says. "Eels on the mother****ing road.

"Eels in the gutter – only in Masterton."

Around 80,000 eels live in sewage ponds outside of the town, and are being transferred to new ponds this year with the completion of a new treatment plant.

"My grandma has lived here all her life," says Mr Kerehi. "Seventy-plus years and she has never seen it happen."

He says Jones Pl often floods in heavy rain and believes the eels came up through a stormwater drain.

"It's connected to a creek which we used to play in, go eeling in actually, over the back fence. It's the only place I can think of."

The Masterton District Council says the slippery visitors were victims of the weekend's heavy rain.

"It did flood some of our town creeks as water would have taken eels to parts they may not have experienced," says chief executive Westen Hove.

Mr Kerehi and his uncle returned all of the eels to the nearby creek, despite some fierce family debate over what was for dinner.

"My grandma was trying to get us to kill one, gut it and hang it up because she is old school," he says. She was hanging out for a feed but we couldn't do it."

"No I wasn't tempted to eat them at all. I don't like eels. I'm not that much of a hori."

Since uploading the footage to Facebook, Mr Kerehi's colourful commentary has gone viral. It has even spawned a T-shirt.

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