Flights and ferries cancelled, towns cut off as weather causes chaos for transport network

Saturday, 17 July 2021

A resident of Brougham Street in Westport paddles up his street as he gets out of home during the state of emergency which has been called in the West Coast town due to flooding.

The weekend’s massive storm has caused havoc for New Zealand's transport networks across air, land and sea.

The top of the South Island has born the brunt of the storm, with road closures and evacuations leaving at least three towns totally isolated.

Picton was completely cut off after State Highway 1 was flooded between the South Island town and Spring Creek, and the Interislander ferry suspended operations.

Civil Defence declared a state of emergency in the Buller and Marlborough regions as the storm worsened, and the entire townships of Spring Creek and Taumarina near Blenheim were being evacuated.

Army vehicles are operating in Westport as the bank of the Orowaiti River bursts.

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Unimogs, rescue boats and choppers were sent in to Westport as the Orowaiti and Buller Rivers burst their banks.

Roads out of the town had been closed since midday. To the north, SH67 was blocked by floods and slips, and to the south the river was too high for Buller Bridge to remain open.

By 6pm, half Wesport’s 4,500 residents had to evacuate.

Air New Zealand has experienced significant disruption due to wind, rain and fog across the country. Wellington, New Plymouth and Nelson airports were the worst affected by the delays and cancellations.

The town of Springs Junction, near Lewis Pass, was also left isolated after SH65 to the west was closed at 3.12pm.

SH 65 to the north of the town, and SH 7 to the east had been closed due to slips and flooding since just after 7am on Saturday morning.

As the storm moved up to the North Island, motorists were left stranded between Wellington and Lower Hutt for hours after SH2 flooded at 3.30pm.

Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency’s online traffic map showed that section of highway will remain closed for northbound traffic until further notice.

A detour was available for motorists heading north, who could take SH1 onto SH58 and back to SH2 on the other side of the flooding.

The wild weather was also making air travel difficult.

Wind, rain and fog across New Zealand caused significant disruption to domestic flights this weekend.

The Kaiarahi Interislander ferry left Wellington at 4pm, but had to turn back due to severe wind and Picton getting cut off by the storm.

An Air New Zealand media advisory said while Wellington, New Plymouth and Nelson were the worst-affected airports on Saturday.

Auckland, Whangārei, Kerikeri, Hamilton, Tauranga, Rotorua, Gisborne and Timaru were also hit with severe weather.

“Multiple regional turbo-prop services have been cancelled or significantly delayed today, and this disruption is likely to impact the schedule… into Sunday.”

Air New Zealand said affected customers were offered bus transport where possible, and additional flights would be added to Sunday’s schedule.

Jet planes were less affected, and continued to operate largely as normal, with some delays into and out of Auckland.

Anyone booked to fly with the airline this weekend was advised to keep an eye on its arrivals and departures page for the most up to date information.

Air New Zealand’s contact service centre was under very high demand, and the airline asked customers to use online self-service booking tools and avoid calling in unless absolutely necessary.

Meanwhile, the Interislander ferry has suspended all operations until further notice.

Interislander general manager Walter Rushbrook said the scheduled departure of the Aratere from Wellington this afternoon was cancelled due to severe wind conditions in Picton.

The last ferry to depart Wellington was the Kaiarahi, which head out with 450 passengers on board at 4pm.

“However, we [were] advised by Waka Kotahi that the road between Picton and Blenheim was closed until further notice.

“For this reason, at about 5pm we decided to turn the ship around and return to Wellington.”

Further Road Closures:

SH6 between Motupiko and Kohatu, south of Nelson, closed at 5.28am

SH6 between Hira and Renwick, since 9.44am on Saturday.

SH 64 between Renwick and St Arnaud, since 9.26am

SH6 between Inangahua to Westport, throuh the Lower Buller Gorge, closed due to high river levels at 9.39pm on Friday.

A complete and up to date information on road closures can be found on Waka Kotahi NZ Transport’s traffic map online.