A stretch of the Haast Pass Rd has been reopened after a salvage crew was able to remove a overturned fuel tanker blocking half the road late last night.
It took all day for the tanker to be removed after it crashed near Pleasant Flat about 7.30am yesterday morning.
A police spokeswoman said the salvage crew was able to lift the 16,000 litre SouthFuels tanker off the road using a crane late last night and the road was now fully open.
It appeared the tanker driver veered to the side of the highway and the road gave way under the weight of the vehicle, Senior Constable Paul Gurney, of Haast, said.
The driver was uninjured and the diesel stayed in the tanker, but moving the massive truck proved impossible.
A 200m section of the road was reduced to one lane for most the day but had to be closed while the tanker was emptied by a specialist recovery team from Dunedin.
Emergency services from Lake Hawea, Makarora, Haast and Wanaka all attended the crash.
Snr Const Gurney said the situation could have been a lot worse if the driver had been injured or the tanker had ruptured.
"I think we can say in this instance we are very lucky — lucky the driver was uninjured, lucky no fuel leaked and lucky someone was able to raise the alarm."
The tanker narrowly missed a large concrete culvert. which could have caused a rupture if hit.
A member of the public had to drive from the crash site to Haast about 45km away, because of a lack of cellphone coverage.
Ice on the road meant the trip took 10 to 15 minutes longer than usual, Snr Const Gurney said.
Motorists could still expect delays of up to 10 minutes near Makarora due to rock scaling work between 8am and 5pm from today until Wednesday, June 12.
