Businesses take hit as wild weather closes roads to Martinborough

It's rinse and repeat in South Wairarapa with back-to-back storms dumping huge amounts of rain, flooding rivers, and closing roads across the district.

The heavy rain on Wednesday and overnight has seen the main routes into holiday hotspot Martinborough shut for the second time in 24 hours.

The Waihenga Bridge on State Highway 53 closed in the early hours of Thursday as the Ruamahanga River rose.

Some businesses told RNZ the consequences were immediate, with cancellations and fewer bookings, and given it was a long weekend - the financial hit particularly hurt.

Owner of Moy Hall winery Phillip McArthur said bookings compared to this time last year were down 60 percent.

"Basically it stops our business in its tracks. There are people that are in Martinborough so they still turn up, but those day visitors just disappear. So yeah, it [the bridge shutting] can be pretty detrimental to business.

"It's pretty scary cause the industry - hospo and the grape industries - [is] probably not as strong as it has been in the past. So we're at a point where we're really struggling with anything that's outside the norm," he said.

McArthur said getting supplies delivered on the alternative route into town through Longbush, was doable but not ideal.

"It's not an arterial route by any stretch of the imagination. It is definitely a back-up route. There are a few spots there which are actually quite dangerous, especially if you're bringing a truck over."

He said a new bridge would be costly but something had to be done to ensure reliable access as the consequences of its closure went beyond just one business.

"We employ people we give them the money, tourists come in and spend money here and it gets distributed out through the community. When we don't have the ability to do that and get cut-off it's actually pretty detrimental.

"We can't have another Matariki weekend, we only get one a year and if we can't serve the customers on this day we don't get the money back ever again and it doesn't go into the community."

Kate Kerr, who manages holiday homes at Discover Wairarapa, said the bridge's closure created huge uncertainty.

She said about 17 properties across Martinborough and Greytown were fully booked for Matariki weekend and she'd been on the phone all morning.

"Most of our guests arrive tomorrow so we're fielding a lot of calls at the moment, people wondering whether they can get into [Martinborough] town."

Kerr said there'd been no cancellations, but it was a different story for the iconic Martinborough Hotel on the corner of the town square.

By 10am on Thursday, hotel owner Tim Smith said he'd lost about $6000 with 18 guests nights cancelled - however, he stressed others in the district had it worse with storm damage.

"Come Monday we'll open our doors but I think our real worry is if that bridge doesn't open, this weekend becomes our new normal if we have an event that takes it out."

The South Wairarapa District Council said damage to the spillway when the Ruamahanga flooded at the end of June, had lowered the threshold to shut the bridge.

It said the timeframe for a repair was unknown.

South Wairarapa deputy mayor Rob Taylor said the bridge had been forced to shut four or five times this year already and the flow-on effects were huge.

"This is not a few thousand each time this event occurs it's hundreds and thousands of dollars that's costing this community.

"And if you take that further, it means our ... farmers can't get cattle, sheep to markets, the kids can't go to school and emergency services ... when the bridges are closed the only [viable] way in and out to Wellington or Masterton hospital is by helicopter."

Taylor said with ageing and failing infrastructure the future resilience for communities like Martinborough hinged on central government funding.

Tim Smith said it was simple, the Waihenga Bridge was a lifeline and needed to be replaced.

"We're looking forward to having a new bridge, a commitment from someone to help us get that bridge is what we really want."

In the meantime, he said those looking to escape the city this weekend could take Martinborough's backroads.

"We're still open for business, it's only an extra 25 minutes, 30 minutes from Wellington. It's a bit of an adventure, but we're still open and it's still a great place to come to."

Slips, trees come down in bad weather

Meanwhile, slips and trees have blocked suburban roads as winds of 100kmh lashed the capital.

Wellington City Council said a slip came down on Stock Street in Brooklyn on Thursday morning, blocking the road.

Near Tawa, multiple trees came down on Takapu Road.

The public was asked to take care on roads and avoid parks and reserves, as falling trees and branches could be dangerous in the conditions.

A resident also came across a slip on Waitoa Road in Hataitai on Thursday morning, which appeared to have fallen against a parked car.

The Hutt City Council said no roads were closed in Lower Hutt due to flooding, however, there were areas of standing water following the heavy rain overnight.

They also asked motorists to drive to conditions.

MetService said people should look out for fallen trees hitting roads.

It said the weather is forecast to ease this evening and into the long weekend - however temperatures are looking cold.

Wellington Central is forecast to have temperatures around 7C on Friday and Saturday.

Bluebridge cancelled all ferries for the day, except an early passing from Picton which ran without passengers.

Interislander, however, is still operating and reported a low chance of cancellations.

Air Chathams cancelled one service from Chatham Islands to Wellington, due to the weather in both locations, delaying the flight until Friday.

Power Co said about 450 customers are without power across the North Island, with about 100 in Warea, 70 in Wairarapa, and 50 in Pungarehu.

"Crews will work as quickly as they can to restore supply to affected customers impacted by weather-related outages as quickly and safely as they can, as weather conditions enable."

The company said it was unable to provide estimated restoration times for some outages at the moment.

Wellington Electricity reported no power outages.