The smell of smoke, from 140km away

The sight of smoke creeping over the hills had Marlborough Sounds residents in a panic, before they realised it was from a major fire near Nelson.

An orange haze appeared from the west a few hours after the fire broke out at Pigeon Valley, 30 kilometres from Nelson, having torn through 120 hectares of dry grass and bush by 6pm on Tuesday.

Hakahaka Bay resident Rose Patchett fielded several phone calls and messages from panicked neighbours that evening, as Neighbourhood Support coordinator of the far-flung Port Underwood bay, 140 kilometres east of Pigeon Bay.

‘‘And a few people yelled over the fence, ‘can you see the smoke?’ That’s the Port Underwood style of communication, shouting from deck to deck,’’ Patchett said.

‘‘A lot of them hadn’t heard about the fires. People were smelling smoke and asking, ‘what’s happening?’ You could see the smoke pretty much over the whole of Port Underwood, it was like an orange haze. From our deck you could see it coming right into the valley,’’ she said.

Neighbours were wary of smoke as the heavily-forested area had two forest fires in the last few years, Patchett said.

Waikawa Marina resident Lisa Delaveau said her brother in Ruakaka Bay, halfway down the Queen Charlotte Sound, contacted her thinking there was a big fire near Picton.

‘‘Further out near him, it looked like the smoke was coming from here, but it was actually passing between us,’’ Delaveau said.

‘‘It sounds awful to say, but it was very pretty.’’

Waikawa Bay resident Sandy Knight said she looked out the kitchen window to see ‘‘a massive haze, right over the water’’.

Weather from Nelson often blew over the hills into the Sounds, Knight said.

‘‘But I was surprised to see the smoke so far from Nelson. It made me realise what a big scale this fire actually was.’’

Blenheim woman Mel Marshall said she got a call from her mother in Waikakaho Valley, northwest of Blenheim, who smelled smoke and was worried there was a fire nearby. They were ‘‘right in the middle’’ of the Waikakaho Valley fire in 2015, Marshall said.

‘‘I feel so sorry for all the people being evacuated because we know what that’s like, and especially that elderly residential home, and there’s a lot of animals that have perished or got burnt.’’

The wind changed on Wednesday, and the haze over Marlborough disappeared.

In Nelson, the flames had spread over 1900 hectares by yesterday, forcing the evacuation of 182 homes, causing up to $2 million worth of damage to forestry, and damaging at least one house, Civil Defence said.

A second wildfire that broke out on nearby Rabbit Island was being treated as suspicious.

Fire and Emergency New Zealand announced a total fire ban across the entire Marlborough region yesterday.

There was one admission at Nelson Hospital for smoke inhalation yesterday, and one nurse from Wairau Hospital travelled to Nelson to help on Wednesday.

Marshall was organising a truckload of supplies for displaced pets and stock in her Blenheim Milk and More delivery truck today, with a large amount contributed by Seddon residents.

‘‘When they had the earthquake [in 2016] Nelson helped them out quite a lot, so they wanted to give something back,’’ Marshall said.

Anyone who would like to help should email melaniemarshall246 @gmail.com. The road that winds through New Zealand’s largest farm will close to the public from Sunday due to ‘‘extreme’’ fire risk.

The Acheron Rd, through Molesworth Station, will shut down a month early after a hot, dry summer left it with a large amount of tinder dry growth.

The road links the Awatere Valley, in Marlborough, with Hanmer Springs, in Canterbury, giving drivers another option on their journey between the two neighbouring regions.

Department of Conservation South Marlborough operations manager Phil Bradfield said Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) had advised the fire risk had become extremely high in South Marlborough, particularly in Molesworth.

‘‘Having received advice from FENZ, we agree that the fire risk is becoming too high and protecting the values of Molesworth are paramount,’’ he said.

Public safety was also considered when making the decision to close the Acheron Rd, Bradfield said.

‘‘Fire is a major threat to all the values of Molesworth, and movement of people and vehicles adds considerably to the fire risk,’’ he said.

‘‘We need to eliminate those risks, and the best way to do that is to close the road.’’

One of the biggest fire threats to the region were hot engines stopping on the side of the road,