State Highway 6 is shut from Fox Glacier to Haast. Photo: NZTA/Waka Kotahi
Tourism businesses in Westland are facing uncertainty heading into their busy season, as the main highway remains closed after this weekend's storm, with no firm re-opening date.
State Highway 6 is shut from Fox Glacier in the north, to Haast in the south, and Waka Kotahi have said that's likely to be the case until the end of this week, at least, while contractors clear rockfall debris and assess the stability of the road.
In Franz Josef, accommodation business owner Logan Skinner said he's been fielding lots of phone calls about upcoming bookings.
"People wanting to cancel, uncertainty about travel plans, people are very resilient on the West Coast so it is not a massive issue for locals, but for tourists and tourism in general it is very uncertain times."
At Lake Matheson, cafe owner Chris Alexander said cancellations had been rolling in, during what would otherwise be the busiest week for tour groups, this side of Christmas.
"Obviously there's a reduction in customers with the main highway closed and not a certain re-opening date, people just don't come. It's ok for the first day because people are trapped in town and they have to eat and drink so that holds its own, but there's been a drop off since then and we are down to just about zero."
He said the communication from Waka Kotahi and the council had been better than during previous road closures - and the timeline was being regularly reviewed.
"I mean the unfortunate thing is the issue south on the road at the moment has been there for 20 years and there has been nothing put in place to mitigate a situation like this."
At Salmon Cafe, in the Westland settlement of Paringa, Ben Monk agreed. He said the road at Knights Point had been the weakest part of the highway for some time.
"It's continuing to be an issue and it has been an issue for over a decade, they've known about it for a very long time and we have been constantly trying to battle to get them to do a permanent fix there instead of progressively letting it get worse and see what happens.
"The biggest fear for us is that the road goes completely and we don't know what to do then, we are just all going to have to shut down basically."
He said it's frustrating and stressful and residents who want to see the necessary work done to ensure it can remain open.
"Every time there is a weather event all the locals are just on edge, 'is it going to go, is the road going to close, what's going to happen?' and if it's a natural disaster and there are slips that we can't avoid then that's absolutely fine, but when the road goes out and it could have been avoided, that's the hard pill to swallow."
Photo: NZTA/Waka Kotahi
Staged reopening
Waka Kotahi central South Island system manager Mark Pinner said State Highway 6 between Haast and Knights Point would remain closed until the end of this week at least, while contractors work to clear rockfall debris and assess the stability of the road.
He said the site remained unstable, with further rockfall overnight on Sunday.
Pinner said a rock scaling crew was on site on Monday, to begin removing rocks and debris above the road at the northern end and assess cracking in the road at the southern end of the site. It could take up to three days to complete safely.
Between Knight's Point and Haast, the earliest possible reopening was likely to be the end of this week, initially a single lane for passenger vehicles only, limited to daytime travel only and weather-dependent.
Between Fox Glacier township and Moeraki, slip clearance was progressing well and full public access was expected late Monday.
Photo: NZTA/Waka Kotahi
More weather on the way
During the weekend deluge a NIWA weather station near Franz Josef recorded 430 millimetres of rain in the 30 hours to midday on Sunday.
Metservice meteorologist Lewis Ferris said the West Coast would have a few days of fine weather before the rain returns.
"We do have more wet weather being dragged in from the north west, it does look like parts of the West Coast of the South Island will see another period of quite heavy rain from Thursday into Friday.
"It doesn't look as though the intensities are as large as what we saw last weekend, but it will be a period of heavy rain on an already saturated region."
Waka Kotahi said the road was an essential lifeline and tourist highway for the wider West Coast, and it was working to reopen it as soon possible.
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