Christchurch state of emergency extended, Banks Peninsula still cut off
Friday, 2 May 2025
Christchurch’s state of emergency will continue into Saturday as Banks Peninsula - including the Little River and Akaroa townships - remains cut off after this week’s rain deluge.
A total of 125mm of rain has fallen in Christchurch since Wednesday - more than double the 50mm historical average for the whole month of April, while 303mm fell in Akaroa - double the town's monthly average.
Parts of State Highway 75, the main route between Christchurch city and Banks Peninsula, remains closed with parts of it under water.
NZTA warned drivers that Canterbury’s entire highway network was “saturated”.
Potholes, slips, road drop-outs, the risk of trees falling, and crews sorting the issues would mean slower-than-usual journeys over the weekend, system manager Mark Pinner said.
In Akaroa, the rain flooded properties, homes and shops and cracked open a road.
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell told reporters on Friday afternoon there were “controlled movements” out of Little River. Further Government support would be provided to Selwyn as needed.
Christchurch Mayor Phil Mauger said the state of emergency status would be reviewed again on Saturday.
Selwyn lifted its state of emergency on Friday afternoon.
SH75 was closed between Birdlings Flat and Little River alongside Lake Forsyth/Te Roto o Wairewa. NZTA said it would stay that way until water levels started to drop.
Banks Peninsula received about 300mm of rain in the 48-hour deluge, making it the worst-hit spot in the Canterbury region during days of severe rainfall. Local roads in Banks Peninsula were closed too.
In Christchurch, most of the roads in he city that closed due to flooding have reopened. However, all grass sports fields will be closed for the weekend, as using them would likely cause irreparable damage, the council said.
Libraries, the art gallery, pools and sport and recreation centres would however be open.
A slip took out the front yard of a newly-built Lyttelton home on Cressy Tce.
Further north, Interislander cancelled all passenger ferry sailings of the Cook Strait until Saturday morning. In Wellington, planes struggled to land in strong winds, debris blocked coastal roads and some residents had power outages.
Selwyn ended its state of emergency at 3pm on Friday as the weather improved.
'In taking this step, we understand that there are still people in the district who are coping with the effects of flooding on their properties,' mayor Sam Broughton said.
'This includes those in both our townships and our rural areas. Not being in a state of emergency does not reduce our commitment to support those who have been directly affected.
In Selwyn, the downpour affected about 50 properties and building inspectors were checking properties, the district council said.
Tai Tapu roads under water
Despite Old Tai Tapu Rd flooding, no homes were affected, but driving was hazardous in the area, the council said.
Among the flood victims was The Raspberry Cafe on Rhodes Rd, which the owners could not access due to the high waters.
“Unfortunately the damage from the recent rainfall is far worse than we could have imagined,” a cafe spokesperson said in a Facebook post.
“We are very sorry to our customers who have bookings this weekend - I know that some of them were for special occasions.”
Caitlin Brackley was staying at her friend’s house due to floodwaters closing the road to her family’s Tai Tapu Rd home.
Her parents and three siblings were stuck in the house, but Brackley, the junior manager of the Tai Tapu Hotel Restaurant, Bar & Function Venue, needed to ensure she could get to her daily shifts.
It was not uncommon for the roads to flood, but this was the worst Brackley had seen in the 15 years she had lived off Rhodes Rd.
“Some people have big utes, so they can get out, but my car’s [small], I’m not trying that.”
During the weekends the hotel usually accommodated about 600 patrons, but due to the weather it was likely they would have to cancel the last band of the season scheduled to play on Sunday, she said.
“It was so dead [Thursday] night. We had four tables. Normally on a Thursday we’d get at least 12 tables through. But we had people in the pub, the pub’s always busy.”
Akaroa cut off, SH75 becomes a river
Briar Dann has a property next to SH75 in Motukarara, between Tai Tapu and Birdlings Flat near Te Waihora/Lake Ellesmere.
The rain had pooled through Dann's paddocks more than she’d seen before.
'[The sheep] have lost all of their paddock…'We've never had it through this little paddock like this before.”
“We woke up and realised they had to get out of there.”
Akaroa’s Ōnuku Marae chairperson Rik Tainui said whānau were all safe, but the floodwaters breached the marae.
On Wednesday evening the floodwaters began to rise, coming up the road towards the marae where a cohort of broadcasting students were being hosted, he said.
At about 8pm they had to evacuate because “water was coming in all over the place,” he said.
“It soaked the whole place through, there’s mud, water was coming through the doors, through the toilets, through everywhere.”
The wharenui was spared from damage, but the wharekai and adjoining buildings were soaked, putting a pause on any marae activities for the foreseeable future, Tainui said.
“It’s just a pain for us because now we’ll have to replace all the carpets and the flooring and all that stuff.”
Tainui said kaimahi of the marae and council staff were a huge help getting most of the water out of the buildings and clearing drains, to give the water coming down from the hills a different route to flow.
He said they had to wait until insurance staff came to assess the damage before a big clean could happen.
Cracks in Lighthouse Rd, Akaroa
Following a Geotech assessment of cracks in Lighthouse Rd and the surrounding land in Akaroa, another property on Aylmers Valley Rd has been evacuated, the council said on Friday afternoon.
With rainfall easing, they were not anticipating any significant land movement.
As a precaution, several households evacuated on Thursday.
While there was no immediate danger to the evacuated properties or other properties in the vicinity, if conditions changed more households may need to evacuate at short notice, the council warned.
It has created a precautionary “secondary evacuation zone” bordered by Lighthouse Rd, Onuku Rd and Aylmers Valley Rd, including Newton Place.
Volunteers planned to door knock those properties on Friday afternoon, although some were understood to be holiday homes and not currently occupied.
The secondary evacuation zone includes the Akaroa Health Centre. Civil Defence has been in regular contact with the Centre and plans are already in place, should an evacuation be required.
Akaroa Volunteer Fire Brigade chief Mark Thomson told The Press flooding entered two homes, a local hairdresser, cafe and the town cinema. The crew responded to 10 call-outs on Thursday including to flooding, minor slips or trees down, he said.
A local Fulton Hogan worker was out until 1am clearing drains, he said.
'It was just the sheer level of rain,' he said. However, he said the town had “seen worse” and “people were pretty onto it”.
Akaroa Hair Studio hairdresser Denise Langrope said “some big puddles” remained after water seeped through the salon’s aluminium doors on Thursday. She was trying to air and dry the studio on Friday after the rain stopped.
The salon was “a bit lower lying down the back of a section” so other nearby shops weren’t affected, she said, but a neighbour had their backyard flood.
Little River swamped
Little River was hit badly, with SH75 through the town utterly swamped.
Little River’s SiloStay hotel owner Rob Fowler said some of his guests were unable to leave the town.
Banks Peninsula MP Vanessa Weenink said flooding was not uncommon on the peninsula, but this time all the key roads were blocked.
“Essentially, the peninsula is cut off - people can’t get in or out of any of the routes, all the evacuation routes are closed,” she said.
The Little River Inn praised volunteer firefighters for coming to the rescue after the lower level of the pub “decided to take a swim”.
“You guys are absolute legends,” it said in a Facebook post.
Read more:
Lyttelton family’s new home loses front yard in slip