Coromandel cut off
Roads flooded, hillsides slipped and a monument fell into the sea – Coromandel had a rough day.
The Coromandel Peninsula was cut off by slips and flooding as yesterday’s winter storm moved across the North Island.
State Highway 25 at Manaia remained closed for most of the day; SH25 between Whitianga and Kaimarama and south of Tairua closed in the early afternoon and; State Highway 25A – the Kopu-Hikuai Rd – closed until further notice after a major slip.
Late closures also happened on SH25 at Tapu and east of the Coromandel township.
Yesterday morning, heavy rain and strong winds lashed Auckland and Northland and by lunchtime, the rain band moved across Coromandel and Bay of Plenty.
Annelise Greenfield and six friends were in Matarangi for the weekend and were heading back to Auckland yesterday when they were halted by floods.
‘‘We’re totally stuck,’’ Greenfield said. ‘‘I’ve never been stuck here in the many years we’ve been coming to the Coromandel.
‘‘We went out to State Highway 25 and were totally flooded in and then we turned around to Whitianga and now we’ve just found out we are totally flooded in the Whitianga way, too,’’ Greenfield said.
The driver of a four-wheeldrive, sporting a snorkel and capable of driving through high water, headed back the other way and warned people to turn around. ‘‘He was saying to everyone: ‘You can’t get through. Nah, that’s it.’ ’’
As the storm buffeted the peninsula, a plinth dedicated to Captain James Cook fell into the sea.
Thames Coromandel District Council mayor Sandra Goudie said work was under way to shore up the monument before it toppled over an eroded bank and into the tide.
‘‘The sea beat us to it but we are fighting back,’’ Goudie said. ‘‘We’ve rescued the plinth and we’ll work out where the locals want to put the plinth in a safer spot.’’
The monument was erected at a reserve and no district infrastructure was damaged as a result of the plinth collapse.
‘‘We’ll be doing some solid work to try and make sure we keep what we’ve got and don’t lose much more.’’
The slip on the Kopu-Hikuai Rd is in the same area as a previous slip last July, which closed the road for days.
‘‘There is a bit of a lake up on the hill so it’s going to keep doing that,’’ Goudie said. ‘‘NZTA were just a little bit slow in getting the road monitored at both ends so people knew that it was down.
They need to tell people right around the district so people know.’’
The flooding at Manaia was the main focus for the duration of the day yesterday; followed in the afternoon by Whitianga and Tairua.
‘‘Those spots are the ones that generally flood. That makes the roads impassable until the tide goes down again.
‘‘People won’t be able to go anywhere because if they are flooded at Manaia and flooded at Wade Rd [Whitianga], they’ll be stuck in the top quarter of the peninsula.’’
She said the new work done to repair SH25 – the Thames Coast Rd north of Thames – may have dodged any damage for now.
‘‘Hopefully there isn’t any inundation of people’s homes. That’s the key thing. If there is surface flooding, people can put up with that inconvenience but when it does damage to people’s’ homes, it becomes really difficult.’’
NZ Transport Agency monitored known flooding points as river levels continued to rise into the night, said Waikato systems manager Karen Boyt.
With the high tide at 9pm last night, flooding was expected to worsen, she said.
Colville resident Carey Aburn said paddocks and roads in the northern end of the peninsula were inundated with water.
By afternoon, the rain had stopped and floodwaters cleared.
‘‘The rain has cleared now but it was torrential all night and all of today. It seemed to get heavier and heavier,’’ Aburn said.
Miranda, on the Firth of Thames, saw flooding begin about 1.30pm yesterday.
Miranda Holiday Park manager Don Hellaby said the village saw a lot of rain and some flooding on the campground, too. He said 10 of his 80 campervan spots had been flooded.
‘‘We’ve got a fair bit of rain . . . some of our camping ground is under water.’’