'Nothing to sell': Martinborough businesses struggle to get supplies in

Business owners in Martinborough say suppliers can't make it into town - or they are left paying extra to get trucks to take the only alternative route.

Bridges in and out of Martinborough reopened on Wednesday afternoon, bar the Lower Valley Bridge which remains closed following another bout of bad weather.

However, the South Wairarapa District Council says river levels are expected to rise which could again impact routes in and out of Martinborough.

Head of the Martinborough Business Association, Conor Kershaw, said everyone suffered every time the bridges closed.

As the owner of Four Square and Mitre 10, he said his customers are missing out due to suppliers unable to get in.

Kershaw said each time the bridges closed for more than 48 hours, he pays to send trucks through the longer alternative route.

When the bridges shut, it leaves a one winding, rural road through Longbush as the only route in and out.

The main Waihenga Bridge at State Highway 53, which locals rely on, was closed by storms twice already this year.

"[It's] enormously frustrating considering there is a perfectly good bridge there which is just unable to be used when it's raining."

Kershaw believed that if the bridges are unsafe during a weather event, then they should be replaced.

He felt Land Transport NZ deemed the infrastructure as low priority as there are alternative routes, however, he said those routes are not fit for purpose.

Co-owner of Kitchener's Cafe, Nadia White, said the Matariki public holiday on Friday could be a disaster for their business.

"If this carries on ... then we've got nothing to sell."

She said the cafe was struggling to get milk and bread in.

But much the same, customers can't come in, and are cancelling plans across the town, she said.

"You miss one day here, thousands of dollars gone. Its not sustainable for anybody."

"Something has got to happen, it can't carry on like this."

White too hoped for improved infrastructure, calling what's currently in place a "disaster".

Farmers on edge

Earlier today, mayor Dame Fran Wilde told RNZ farmers are "very worried".

"They've had two [weather] events one in February and one about 10 days ago and the ground is saturated. We can't stop the weather unfortunately and that's the problem.

"We're getting too much rain, big events, all at once - three in a row is too much for us."

She said people were "pretty resilient" and would have prepared for the forecast, stocking up on supplies.

"But it doesn't help our local economy and it's also costing the ratepayers a massive amount of money in bridge repairs and road repairs."

South Wairarapa's deputy mayor Rob Taylor is warning the worst rainfall is yet to come for the already saturated region.

Taylor said the region's emergency operations centre was up and running in preparation.

"But clearly, the weather is expected to get much worse.

"The ground is already sodden so we're going to expect high levels of rainfall, more flooding and the closures that we already have are possibly going to increase over the next 24 hours."

South Wairarapa councillor and chair of the infrastructure committee Aidan Ellims said farmers were feeling the burn of back-to-back flooding.

"All those rural areas out of Martinborough, they're suffering. The farmers are suffering. Those farmers are preparing for lambing in the next few weeks or so.

"They've got a lot on their minds and on their plates."

He said it was important to keep rural roads open as much as possible, but noted some communities were already isolated.