Chch couple caught in Marlborough landslides
A Christchurch couple had to message emergency services through a friend in Auckland after a mud slip caused by heavy rain took out two baches beside them in the Marlborough Sounds.
Lucy Clark and husband Alastair thought their ‘‘mini break’’ in Pukenui Bay, off Queen Charlotte Dr, would be ‘‘wonderful’’ until the weather went ‘‘wild’’.
During their first day at the bach, their neighbour, a long-term resident, told them the heavy rain that had been battering the upper South Island on Friday night had caused the road out to collapse a metre, trapping them in the bay.
Later that day, at 10pm, the couple heard noises to the right of their bach ‘‘like gun fire, rocks crumbling, water rushing’’.
The noise got ‘‘worse and worse’’ until the couple felt forced to investigate at 1am on Sunday.
‘‘It was so dark. We could hear it, but not see it. Rocks were being thrown against the baches, glass was smashing. My husband went up to the main access road but all he could see was movement. It was too scary for words,’’ Clark said.
The bay’s mobile coverage was down. ‘‘We were feeling quite desperate. We felt we were alone. There wasn’t anywhere we could go. It was really awful.’’
Clark tried messaging the Marlborough District Council, its civil defence team and police using Facebook. When no-one replied, she messaged a friend in Auckland who was online.
‘‘At first she thought it was a hoax, until I convinced her it was me and that we were in trouble. She got in touch with the fire brigade, who connected her to the brigade in Linkwater [Marlborough Sounds], who activated an alarm.
‘‘But they quickly realised it was way too dangerous to rescue us . . . They said they would talk to us in the morning.’’
The next morning, on Sunday, the Clarks were ‘‘devastated’’ to see a 15-metre-wide landslide had ‘‘taken out’’ at least two baches in the bay.
‘‘A man from one of the baches had escaped to our neighbour’s bach during the night . . . We were trapped. We could only shout across the mud at them,’’ Clark said.
The Clarks put most of their belongings in their car, knowing they would have to leave it when they were rescued, and packed an emergency bag and waited. Help arrived at 9am in the form of Linkwater’s chief fire officer Simon Lamb.
‘‘He was covered in mud. Simon said, ‘I’ve come to walk you out’, and we said, ‘We’ll go wherever you take us’,’’ Clark said.
They had to ‘‘scramble’’ through mud to reach the bay’s shore, before being walked to Belvue Bay. The Clarks were then taken to Linkwater’s Smiths Farm Holiday Park on a ute.
Yesterday morning the couple hitched a ride with some fellow holiday park visitors and secured tickets on the InterCity bus from Picton to Christchurch.
‘‘The rental car companies
have said there are no cars in Picton because people haven’t returned them. This weather has had far-reaching effects . . . The people of Marlborough are amazing. Everyone we met helped us without question.’’
Lamb, a resident of Queen Charlotte Dr, said the Christchurch couple were two of five people he walked out of Pukenui Bay. The other three were a couple and their son.
He said the slip happened at 1.30am on Sunday, leaving a walk along the beach at low tide the only way out.
Johnson’s barge operation manager Jonathan Everett said the company had helped Leslie Bros Contracting sail a digger to Belvue Bay on Sunday to start clearing slips.
Smiths Farm Holiday Park coowner and Marlborough Sounds ward councillor Barbara Faulls said a campervan owner sought shelter at the park on Sunday quite shaken.
‘‘In all the time I’ve lived in this valley, this is the worst I’ve ever seen the roads. The sheer amount of slips on the hills around the valley is just phenomenal. It’s utter devastation.’’
Faulls recorded 270 millimetres of rain in about two days.
Marlborough emergency services manager Brian Paton said while Marlborough Sounds residents were used to being stranded, often keeping back-up supplies, tourists were not.
‘‘There are people who have booked baches who won’t have taken an extra two weeks worth of food with them because they planned to come back at the end of the school holidays.
‘‘They’re the ones that are probably going to need our help.’’
Paton was unsure how many vacationers were trapped in holiday homes, but said ‘‘a lot’’ had contacted his team.
The Civil Defence team was undertaking reconnaissance work yesterday to determine how many people were in need of assistance, with the aim of running welfare flights in the coming days.
‘‘At this stage there are some communities in the Marlborough Sounds we haven’t heard from, so we’re proactively trying to contact them.
‘‘There are probably a lot of places with no power or telecommunications, so they can’t talk to us and we can’t talk to them.’’
Paton said they would prioritise opening roads, before getting power up and running, and then mobile coverage.
Marlborough Tour Company chief executive Abbe Hutchins said Cougar Line’s skippers and crew had worked throughout the weekend to deliver groceries and evacuate families and travellers from the Marlborough Sounds and the Queen Charlotte Track.
Cougar Line had also transported contractors into the Sounds so they could get to work on restoring services.
Marlborough Mayor John Leggett yesterday said Marlborough Roads staff and contractors were working overtime to assess the damage to Queen Charlotte Dr and to reconnect residents and visitors.
‘‘Our team needs time to get the job done,’’ Leggett said. ‘‘This has been a massive event and there is considerable damage to repair. We are doing everything that is practically possible at this time.’’
Until then, people should not attempt to travel along Queen Charlotte Dr, he said.
Emergency services would have access at all times.