Road closed, but escape possible
Thousands of stranded people at the top of the South Island following ex-tropical cyclone Gita may be able to start leaving Golden Bay this weekend.
About 6000 tourists and residents remain trapped in popular holiday spot, but the NZ Transport Agency hopes to have single-lane access for essential vehicles on State Highway 60 over Takaka Hill by tomorrow.
Travel would be one-way under escort in guided convoys, with strict safety controls in place, from 9am to 5pm. System manager Frank Porter said priority would be given to essential vehicles and those most urgently needing to get in and out of the region.
‘‘The most pressing need is getting fuel, feed for stock and essential freight into Golden Bay, and getting milk and other freight, tourists and people who need to attend medical appointments to the Nelson side of the hill.’’
As of yesterday evening, all but the largest slips had been cleared from the road. However, the hillside collapsed about 1.5 kilometres from Riwaka, taking most of the highway there with it.
Fuel supplies remained rationed and supplies were being barged in to the region several times a day.
One long-time Golden Bay resident said: ‘‘I love the news reports saying we are trapped in Golden Bay. As I see it everyone else is trapped outside.’’
But others were eager to get out. Nick Schryvers was working in Collingwood when his partner, Bec Brown, due to give birth yesterday and already in Nelson to be near the hospital, realised the baby was starting to come.
Schryvers considered mountain biking over the hill to reach her before she had their first child, but the manager of HealthPost, where he worked, got him on a helicopter alongside a load of parcels.
Within five hours of landing, the couple were in hospital. Their baby boy, Artie, arrived in perfect health on Thursday.
Those desperate to get out before the guided convoys start can take their vehicle on a five-hour barge ride from Port Tarakohe to Kaiteriteri, costing $600 per vehicle. Over 90 vehicles were on the waitlist yesterday.
An alternative is flights run by small, private operators.
Golden Bay Air said it had more than
100 people on a waitlist on Wednesday and long queues at Takaka Airport for flights to Nelson.
The state of emergency in the Tasman District lifted yesterday, but several roads in the area remained closed.
There is no update on State Highway 1 either side of Kaiko¯ ura, after 60 slips brought down 300,000 cubic metres of debris over the road and rail corridor during the storm.
The slips are understood to be different in nature to those that closed the highway for over a year following the November 2016 earthquake, and should be quicker to clear.
SH1 will remain closed until at least the middle of next week.
The reopening date will be reviewed on Monday.
* Predicting a landslide, C7