Ōakura Bay could be cut off for days after major Northland slips

Ōakura Bay Reserves Board member Malcolm Devereux, left, and chairman Glenn Ferguson start the cleanup of the devastated Ōakura Hall.
Photo: RNZ / Peter de Graaf

Residents of Northland’s Ōakura Bay say they could be cut off for days after major slips obliterated the road to Whangārei.

Glenn Ferguson, who heads the local reserves board, said the road to the north had been closed since Sunday’s deluge washed out a bridge approach at Ngaiotonga.

Another 200mm of rain on Wednesday triggered a massive slip at Helena Bay Hill on the road south to Whangārei.

There were other, smaller slips between Helena Bay and Ōakura.

A drone image captures the massive slip at Helena Bay Hill in Northland, cutting off Ōakura Bay.
Photo: Supplied / Ngātiwai Trust Board

Ferguson said the latest slip was so big it could take days to clear, but locals were in good spirits and well prepared with plenty of supplies.

“So we can’t go north, we can’t go south. We’ve had it before, and I guess we’ll have again in the future. I think it’s just part of living in paradise out here.”

He said residents were making the most of today’s sunshine to carry on cleaning up and pumping out their properties.

Ferguson said he had checked the Ōakura Community Hall on Thursday morning to see if it had suffered any further damage overnight.

The much-used, and newly renovated, hall was hit by a slip on Sunday that smashed through the back wall, poured over the stage, and filled the hall with an estimated 60 cubic metres of mud, trees and debris.

Floodwaters at Ōakura Bay as seen from the air.
Photo: Supplied / Ngātiwai Trust Board

Ferguson said water was continuing to flow through the hall, but at a reduced rate, and the slip did not appear to have worsened in the overnight rain.

An insurance assessor had inspected the building before the road closed, and now it was a case of waiting for council and EQC engineers to inspect the rear of the building where it had been hit by the slip.

“They were due here on Friday, but I don’t know when they’ll be able to get though.”

The hall would likely have to be cleared out by volunteers using buckets and wheelbarrows, but it was possible sucker trucks could at least remove the mud.

Locals were upbeat and just getting on with the clean-up, Ferguson said.

“They’re out in the sunshine, we’ve got all the pumps that we can muster, and we’re pumping sections out so people get into their garages and low-lying properties so we can ascertain what’s happened.”