State Highway 1 between Blenheim and Picton is inundated by flooding, taking the road down to one lane and causing ferry crossings to delay as motorists get stuck in long queues into the port town.
Ex-Cyclone Hale is heading south, and surface flooding had “added an extra hour to the journey in and out of Picton”, Waka Kotahi NZTA’s journey manager Tresca Forrester said.
Traffic was delayed at Koromiko, the southern entrance to Picton, where 99mm of rain has fallen in the last six hours and had flooded the highway, Waka Kotahi said.
Former Christchurch City Councillor Deon Swiggs was travelling south from Picton when he encountered the “horrific” weather.
“Some severe flooding over the roads just south of Picton,” Swiggs said.
“And the Kaikoura coast isn’t much better. Blenheim was weirdly fine and dry.”
In the North Island, SH57 between Shannon and Tokomaru in the Manawatū-Whanganui region has since reopened after strong winds closed the road this morning.
A rural property has been buried under storm debris in Tolaga Bay as swollen rivers burst their banks.
Photos supplied to The New Zealand Herald show entire paddocks covered with storm debris after heavy rain pounded the Gisborne region.
Meanwhile, a desperate bid to save a Whitianga building from being washed into the sea has worked, with a makeshift sea wall holding fast after this morning’s high tide.
The seaside clubhouse for the Mercury Bay Boating Club has managed to escape further damage after losing land beneath its front veranda overnight.
Club commodore Jonathan Kline said this morning’s effort by the scores of club members and local residents was phenomenal.”I woke up this morning in a very bad state and then we made a few decisions to proceed with what we were told not to do yesterday and I feel great.
Tairāwhiti / Gisborne continues to be in a state of emergency and authorities say more rain is on the horizon after ex-Cyclone Hale wreaked havoc in the area.
Some communities are cut off and more than 1300 households without power after Hale pummeled the region overnight.
”We’re asking everyone to please be patient and continue to avoid all unnecessary travel,” Tairāwhiti Civil Defence controller Nedine Thatcher Swann said.
“We have multiple road closures, there is still surface flooding and as more people get out and about this morning we are hearing more reports of large cracks in roads.”
“At 3am the Hikuwai River peaked at 13.51m - this exceeds the Cyclone Bola level of 13.31m.
“This is a record-breaking height for the Hikuwai River,” she said.
Swann said there is a still a lot of water in the catchments and river levels remain high with woody debris collecting at bridges around Tairāwhiti.
”We also have more rain forecast for the end of this week and into next week so we are not out of the woods yet.”
