Three slips and a bridge out
Robyn Holloway was about five minutes from Havelock when she reached a slip on Queen Charlotte Drive, which had closed the road following ‘‘intense’’ rainfall.
Holloway and her family, who were in three separate cars, had come from Ngakuta Bay along the busy scenic route.
Trying to get home to Golden Bay, she said her family had to go back past Ngakuta Bay, via Picton instead, adding more than an hour to their journey.
Luckily, for the Holloway clan, they were well on their way home, when another smaller slip came down on Queen Charlotte Drive, at Cullen Point, later yesterday, or they could have been stuck.
The road closure was one of several as the region was lashed with wind and rain yesterday. Kaiuma Bay, Mahakipawa and Northbank roads, in rural Marlborough, were closed following slips and fallen trees.
The Wairau River Bridge on State Highway 63, between St Arnaud and Renwick, was closed yesterday afternoon as the Wairau River burst its banks. It was not expected to reopen until conditions had eased.
The New Zealand Transport Agency was advising motorcyclists and drivers of vehicles with high sides to take special care between Picton and Spring Creek because of strong winds.
Marlborough Roads manager Steve Murrin said the Queen Charlotte Drive slip, closest to Havelock, consisted of 4000 cubic metres of fractured and shattered rock.
Murrin said the road saw about 2500 cars in summer, so it was important to make the road safe ahead of the Christmas season.
He said the slip was triggered about a fortnight ago, but fell onto the road yesterday.
‘‘There were some cracks starting to appear up above where the Link Pathway has been formed, so we were alerted to it by the Link Pathway group,’’ Murrin said.
‘‘We did some geotechnical investigation and found that it was quite a deep-seated slip right on the ridge, so the last week or so we’ve been up there with two machines moving all of the fractured loose rock material because we need to make it safe before the busy Christmas season starts.’’
Marlborough Plant and Food research scientist Rob Agnew said there had not been ‘‘too much rain’’ in Blenheim this month, with 17.6 millimetres recorded by 3pm yesterday. By contrast, the Marlborough District Council recorded 128.2mm of rainfall in the Rai Valley, in rural Marlborough.