"Don't drink the water!"
This was the quip from colleagues and friends upon hearing I was headed to Hawke's Bay to cover the contamination crisis.
But for the residents who've suffered through the outbreak, it's far from a joke. They are well and truly over it.
The Government has acknowledged their struggle with an offer of assistance with living expenses and income support from Work and Income.
As the outbreak unfolded and the rest of the country watched on in astonishment as the numbers of those ill rose by the thousand, the coverage took the twists and turns typical of a breaking science or health story.
A tanker was contaminated with E.coli. Oh wait, no it wasn't. It was likely poo from four-legged beasts got into the bore and that resulted in campylobacter.
Photos emerged of cattle wading in the Tukituki. Greenpeace called for a halt to the Ruataniwha Dam project and district councillors, eager at an electioneering opportunity, turned on their Mayor, accusing him of withholding information.
All a bit exhausting to follow when you and your kids have gastro and you just want to know why.
School principals, rest home bosses, the Mayor, and council communications people sound weary and terse. Business owners are trying to get on with it - the council's expected to announce a recovery package for them by the end of the week.
And as the investigation continues and with it the wait for answers, theories abound as to what caused the pollution and how it resulted in the biggest spread of gastric illness in recent New Zealand history.
A local school principal tells me the Hawke's Bay Regional Council has "a lot to answer for".
He asks how old refuse sites along the Tukituki River can be eliminated as a suspect. What about the thousands of beef cattle and sheep in Poukawa Valley?
The regional council is tight-lipped on these accusations. They say they don't have enough information yet and speculation is unhelpful.
Its scientists have been hard at work since news of the pollution broke, testing surface and groundwater sources, trying to work out whether any of them have been contaminated with E.coli - which indicates faecal contamination. They looked at sites around the Havelock North bore location, but also from potential sources like the Tukituki River, which is 2.5km from the bore.
They found a typically low level of E.coli in the river, and in the groundwater between it and the bores, none was found at all. That would appear to absolve the Tukituki River of blame for this particular incident, but it's raised wider questions about the health of the river generally.
Regional council environmental science manager Stephen Swabey says it's not uncommon to record an increase in E. coli in ground and surface water.
"It happens all the time in New Zealand."
He says many areas of the country rely on drinking water from the environment without treatment, and the Government may need to reconsider that in its inquiry.
A man pulls over to speak to us while we're filming the unassuming concrete disks that identify the offending bores on Brookvale Rd, Havelock North. The council needed to communicate the crisis better, he says.
He didn't know about the contamination until Saturday night dinner at Havelock North's Irish pub when they couldn't wash his salad.
His GP reckoned the council should've stationed patrol cars on Havelock North's entrance roads on Friday, pulling people over to warn them about tap water. Others say council employees should've been on the streets issuing warnings over loud speaker.
They seem like outrageous suggestions, but how do you ensure the message is proliferated to an entire community?
That's one of the questions Hastings mayor Lawrence Yule wants answered in the inquiry. He's fiercely defensive of his council and he's adamant they acted as quickly as they could. It's clear he's frustrated, wants to know what's to blame for this blot on the reputation of his sunny, wine-swilling region.
Prime Minister John Key's response on Monday to whether increased agriculture might be a factor was that we've been intensively agriculture-ing for years and "we haven't seen these issues somewhere else".
Water scientist Mike Joy says fish and rivers have been getting sick for years, but now humans are ill we're finally taking notice.
Does the Hawke's Bay Regional Council interim CEO Liz Lambert agree with Dr Joy's view that the Hawke's Bay gastro crisis is a warning that we need to be gentler on our environment?
"That's something the Government will have to decide," she says.
Hawke's Bay voters will soon choose whether to chlorinate their drinking water to protect themselves from the odd occasion that "poo" gets into the system.
Isn't it a bit sad that it's come to this - that we can't rely on the water from our environment anymore.
The ability to drink clean, chemical-free water without paying for it in a bottle may now be a luxury in modern New Zealand.
Newshub.
