Abel Tasman National Park to Takaka - Day 275
Trip Start
Jan 31, 2008
1
196
251
Trip End
Ongoing
Takaka,
South Island,
New Zealand
Monday, November 24, 2008
Did manage to get the car started in the end, luckily a British couple had jump leads, thank god! But this ended up being the least of my worries on this eventful day.
Found out at 8am that the windy dirt track road leading out of the national park was closed due to a series of severe landslides. Certainly caused by the torrential rain which fell all of last night. Could be stuck here for a while I suspect.. It didn't initially look very promising to get out today. Not too much of a problem as long as I can get to Picton in the next two days. Hopefully the weather will ease off tomorrow and they can get the road cleared. Myself, a British couple and two American guys were all in the same boat so we set up camp and had enough food and alcohol to keep us going, all was well. The park rangers all morning said there's no way we'll get out today, so to our surprise at 3pm one of the rangers approached on a quad bike and said there's a bulldozer waiting to lead us out. This heavy piece of machinery would clear any landslides which may get in our way. So we quickly packed up our stuff and slowly followed the bulldozer which had to stop on many occasions to clear debris from the road. Eventually we reached tarmac, I gave the bulldozer driver a honk and a wave of appreciation and continued on the road to Nelson. By this time, the rain was once again torrential and the surrounding fields were completely flooded, the rivers and numerous bridges bursting with dark brown flood water. The road was pretty dangerous with over a foot of standing water in places. Regardless I carried on, until I saw a set of flashing police lights blocking the road ahead. I stopped, and a rather wet policeman approached saying there's no way I could pass as the rivers have completely burst the banks ahead. He suggested I find a bed for the night because I'm going nowhere today. The amount of rainfall was unbelievable, I switched on the radio and a report said 500mm of rain was predicted to fall in a 24 hours period on the mountain range, that's 6 months average rainfall in the UK falling on one day! Extreme weather or what! I turned back to the town of Takaka only around 15km back from where I came. The conditions were rapidly deteriorating, the waters were rising high, so I was glad to reach town where I brought some food from the local supermarket and had something to eat. I was completely starving. Parked in car park in the centre of town by a flooded field and went to the pub for a beer. The American guys were in the dry pub having something to eat. I joined them for a chat when the landlord asked us where we'd parked our cars, the water level was rising and spilling into the car park so we quickly rushed out to move our wheels. Then the road outside the pub was closed with water cascading down the main street. The army then made an appearance so we knew the situation was becoming pretty dire. All we could really do was carry on drinking. To our surprise the army started a loud siren to warn the town's residents of the raising waters, it was like being in a war zone. It was still raining hard and it looked like our sanctuary "The Pub" might be at risk too. Many businesses and homes where already flooded but the rain started to ease off and the waters began to subside. I'm sleeping tonight in the pub car park. Just hope the road is open tomorrow so I can get to Nelson and Picton to catch my ferry to the north island. It's certainly been a crazy day!!
