Kaikōura clean-up: 'We have new creeks that weren't even there before'

Puhi Puhi Valley resident Jeanette Barnett says the river north of Kaikōura is usually a "gentle trickle", but became a raging torrent in last week's flood, scouring out access to her property and cutting it off for a number of days.

"Just the sound of boulders going down the river, grinding so loudly, and the streams being so high, just that sheer power and knowing you couldn't do anything about it really, just sit tight, put another log on the fire."

The state of emergency in Kaikōura was lifted on Monday, almost a week after torrential rain led the Kowhai River to burst its banks, with widespread flooding across the district.

Residents are now in clean up mode and are being warned to keep an eye out for land movement, given the risk of slips and landslides after prolonged rain.

Barnett and her husband Brian have lived in the valley for 14 years, through the earthquakes, Cyclone Gabrielle and other storms.

She said the volume of water last week was "somewhat horrendous".

It gouged out driveways and reshaped roads, carving land down to the bedrock in some places and cutting the valley off.

"Every single culvert on our road was just blown out and disappeared. Every creek was a torrent of water and scoured out, we have new creeks that weren't even there before."

She was thankful everyone in the valley was safe and they rallied together, with one neighbour using his digger to clear debris and create access, and another flying in on a fixed-wing aircraft from Christchurch to help.

It was Friday before Barnett and her husband were able to leave their property, and they met up with their neighbours where the Puhi Puhi River meets the Jordan Stream.

The couple were prepared should they be cut off, but Barnett said she was thrilled to receive care packages from Civil Defence.

"I was just so delighted there was chocolate in it, I couldn't believe it."

Up the 18-kilometre gravel road at the top of the valley is Puhi Peaks Station, nestled amid the Seaward Kaikōura Range.

Operations manager Fee Gray said their weather station recorded 402 millimetres of rain in the 30 hours from 9pm last Monday.

She said it had been an incredible deluge of rain, that turned into snow, later in the week.

"Some of the steepest creeks and streams in New Zealand start here and head down to Kaikōura and to the sea.

"So [the rain] doesn't stick around long for here, but certainly when it was raining, the paddocks, the driveways, the tracks and everything were just like running rivers."

Gray said it usually took about 35 minutes to reach the station, up the 18 kilometre Puhi Puhi Valley Road, but it had suffered serious damage, particularly at the top end.

"It gets steeper the further up the valley you come, there's significant damage to the edges of the road with drop-offs and major slips and still active slips happening at the moment."

She said work had been done to get it open to residents, with four-wheel-drive access, but it was still precarious so they would not be driving out often.

Gray said the cupboards were well stocked and they had enough food to last for a month.

The couple run Kaikōura Wilderness Experience, offering guided walks, hunting expeditions and off-grid accommodation, and Gray said they were usually busy at this time of year, but had to cancel or postpone a number of bookings due to the limited road access.

Roading challenges across the district

After being closed for almost a week, State Highway 1 south of Kaikōura is scheduled to reopen to a single lane, under stop/go control, at midday on Wednesday.

NZTA Central South Island area manager Mark Pinner said contractors had worked over the long weekend to restore access along a 200 metre section of State Highway 1, where the river had scoured out the road, down to one lane.

"We've been placing rock in the river to protect the exposed edge. We lost the road to the middle of the centre line, and putting that rock [in] just protects the bank and prevents any further scour.

"Because we've just got a small bit of carriageway we don't want trucks putting their wheel at that edge...so we're moving the road over to the bank up against a hill."

Pinner said further rock and debris had come down on the road over the weekend, which also had to be cleared.

It was likely to be another month before the road could re-open to two lanes.

"In the meantime, alongside that single lane, we'll be still putting the rocks into the river and building up to the road level and then we have to form a pavement on top of that to get basically the two lanes back as it was before."

Kaikōura mayor Craig Mackle said the council's priorities were people's welfare and restoring safe road and bridge access.

"We've got a lot of work in front of us, a hell of a lot of work. It is going to be a massive job and we're stepping into recovery."

The Inland Kaikōura Road and Old Beach Road remain closed.

Kaikoura District Council controller Pete Kearney said work was underway at Cribb Creek to allow the Inland Kaikōura Road to reopen.

He said initial information was that the bridge at Cribb Creek was intact, but the approach to the bridge needed significant work.

"It's not as bad as what had been feared originally, which is good news from a cost perspective."

Work was also needed on the Hurunui side of the Inland Road and Kearney said the council hoped to have four wheel drive access in place by mid week.

He said it was important residents were aware of landslide risks following the prolonged rain.

"We've identified some properties in South Bay and there's been some new reports of potential risks closer to town... and obviously the slips along State Highway 1 are probably where we feel the highest level of risk are."

In the past week, about 60 properties had been assessed for flood damage.

Two houses have been red-stickered because of the landslide risk, and four houses yellow-stickered, with a further two also likely to be yellow-stickered.