Christmas spirits high as Kenepuru Rd finally reopens to the public

Friday, 20 December 2024

Drive like there’s a truck coming around the corner, say Kenepuru residents as their flood-ravaged road reopens to the public after three years.

There may well be, given stock trucks can now be piloted through.

Kenepuru Rd in the Marlborough Sounds still has blind corners with single lanes, potholes and road cones, as recovery from the 2021 and 2022 storm events continue.

Residents are a bit worried about how visitors will go. Road signs urge drivers to “slow”, with three exclamation marks in case anyone was in doubt.

Even so, Te Mahia Bay Resort owners Trevor and Jann Hook are pleased by the quality of the road to their resort. They have watched contractors work tirelessly to get the road open in time for Christmas.

“The investment to get that road even up to this standard has been really appreciated,” Trevor said.

Spirits were high on Wednesday as a sense of normality was finally felt. The pair had spent three years strictly adhering to the rules, so people could only visit either by walking in off the Queen Charlotte Track, or by boat.

The first 20km of the road, up to Te Mahia, reopened in September, however Te Mahia Rd, which connected Kenepuru Rd to the lodge, had been closed, until Tuesday.

The Hooks said they were fortunate to have a lot of repeat customers who supported them during the closures.

“We've been here for over 30 years so we have seen the ups and downs,” he said.

“It's been really heartening to see the support of locals as well during this time, you know, the last three years haven't been that easy from a business point of view.”

They had already noticed that traffic had picked up since the reopening, but Jann said people needed to be mindful about the road conditions.

“The roads are open, but they’re not perfect.

“We’re suggesting our clients with boats still launch from Havelock, rather than tow them in.”

Further down the road was the Portage drop-out, where Ross Withell was photographed in 2021 looking over the sheer drop as half the outer lane had slid down the hill.

Withell felt the road had improved and the Portage dropout had an “excellent repair”, but the road repairs felt somewhat temporary, and ongoing maintenance was going to be vital.

He admitted he was a bit nervous about traffic coming in.

“It's just a matter of people keeping their speed down,” he said.

Not far from that site was Portage. New managers of the Portage Resort had spent four months gearing up for the road reopening, after Capstone Hotel Management took over the resort in August 2023.

Similar to Te Mahia Bay Resort, the road reopening meant it would be easier for people to access Portage.

General manager Zahid Ullah said the resort had new carpet and curtains, some new decking and they had painted the swimming pool.

Pelorus Tours owners Gary and Ellen Orchard said a number of their customers used to drive to Te Mahia, and they would pick them up for tours by boat from there.

“Word of mouth is what sells in here. Word of mouth can’t get there when the road is bad.”

He said he expected it would take time for business from Te Mahia to pick back up.

Ellen said she was used to the condition of the roads herself, but she, too, was worried about others driving it for the first time.

About a two-hour drive along the road, which was both gravel and tarseal, was Raetihi Lodge, whose co-owner Liane Campbell urged road users to be careful.

Their business model had changed in the past few years, closing their restaurant to the public and instead offering a stay-and-dine package, in part due to the lack of traffic, and too much food wastage.

“I’m amazed that the Marlborough Sounds has not gone off more. I hope that the road opening is going to make a difference,” Campbell said.

“Small business out here is tough, so hopefully the road will bring in more people. But we’re quite fortunate because our market is quite different.”

She wished there were more stop/go controlled areas on the road, because she worried the signs urging caution were not necessarily going to be respected.

Even further down was Hopewell Lodge, right toward the end of the scenic drive.

It was a wait-and-see game, as to whether the road reopening would bring in more business, co-owner Lynley Perkins said.

While boating was probably the best option, due to the lodge being so deep into the Sounds, people did still drive out prior to Kenepuru Rd’s closure.

“A lot of our forward bookings, we didn’t know if the road was going to be open or not, so they’ve already committed to using a water taxi. But we’re very hopeful that we’ll get more booking for last-minute business.

“But I guess, listening to others, they’re just worried that there are going to be accidents. The one-way sections are quite tight in places, you do have to be careful and concentrate, and drive it like you expect a truck around every corner because there might be.

“But it’s wonderful that it is finally open.”

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.