Road workers give drivers a bad steer
Motorists who drove through the Molesworth Station to get around a State Highway 1 closure say road workers directed them onto the challenging high country route.
About 60 vehicles tackled the
207-kilometre gravel road trip in Marlborough on Monday, after
SH1 north of Kaiko¯ura closed when sea wall blocks were washed across the highway.
Several of the vehicles were towing trailers or caravans, which are banned on the route, which links Blenheim and Hanmer Springs. Some motorists ran out of fuel after underestimating the distance and remoteness of the road.
Kayleigh Garner was travelling with her family when road workers directed her into a pull-off south of Blenheim. She said a road worker told her ‘‘you’re going to want to go through the Molesworth’’ to get around the highway closure.
‘‘I expected it to be like one of those effectively one-and-a-half lane paved roads, where it’s right in the backcountry.’’
Once on the route, Garner drive with one wheel ‘‘on the edge of the ditch and one on the ruts’’ to avoid scraping the bottom of her Subaru Legacy station wagon.
She said the drive was ‘‘nervewracking’’ at times due to the steep hills, deep ruts and blind corners, but the views were beautiful.
“It’s not the sort of road that you ventured onto lightly, which is what we did.”
Garner said she used about half a tank of fuel on the drive from Blenheim to Hanmer – the same amount she would use getting from Picton to Christchurch on
SH1.
When she got to Hanmer she posted a message on Facebook telling her friends ‘‘do not go via Molesworth Station between Blenheim and Christchurch. Go the long way. Just do it.’’
Kelly Barnes was heading south with her family on Monday when roadworkers stopped them because of the SH1 closure about
11am.
Barnes said a worker told her the Molesworth was their ‘‘best bet if you are an all right driver’’, was ‘‘partly shingle’’, took 40 minutes and ended near Kaiko¯ ura.
“That guy had no idea what he was talking about and shouldn’t have been there. He downplayed the whole road.”
She said they were in an allwheel-drive, which handled the conditions, but it was ‘‘pretty dodgy’’ in places due to ‘‘great big holes and seriously corrugated surfaces’’. “I needed a stiff drink afterwards, that’s for sure.”
Barnes said the road worker told them it would be a long wait until SH1 reopened. It reopened about midday on Monday, meaning Barnes would have had a faster trip if she waited.
Glen Warner drove north through the Molesworth on Monday in his Subaru Outback.
Warner said there were ‘‘quite a range of vehicles’’ heading the other way, including what looked like rental vehicles and some old VW Combi vans.
NZ Transport Agency system manager Frank Porter said the agency apologised to anyone who drove through Molesworth Station while SH1 was closed expecting an easy drive.
‘‘We regret any incomplete or misleading information that may have been supplied to motorists by our highway or cordon crews.’’
Both Barnes and Garner said they did not see signage warning them about the drive once they turned off the highway.
DOC spokeswoman Trish Grant said there was signage about 200 metres after the turnoff from SH1. It was there as drivers were expected to be going slowly and have more time to read it.
The sign says there is no fuel available for 182km and notes ‘‘fires, dogs, caravans, buses and vehicles over 7m’’ are prohibited.
Grant said DOC was pleased with how they handled Monday’s situation.
‘‘They spoke and gave advice to as many drivers who turned up as possible and provided fuel to people who didn’t have enough. They also escorted in a convoy vehicles towing trailers or with drivers who didn’t feel confident driving the road on their own.’’