Marlborough Sounds locals remain cut off after storm

Hundreds of Marlborough Sounds residents that remain cut off by road after last month's storm are relying on barge transport to get to and from their homes.

Marlborough District Council said more than 670km of road have been affected, around 90 percent of the roading network, with 2900 faults identified.

The worst affected areas include Kenepuru Sound, Okiwi Bay, French Pass, Port Underwood and Queen Charlotte Sound.

Johnson's Barge Service has been ferrying people and vehicles up and down the Kenepuru Sound, and further afield, five days a week.

Chrissy Sumby is one of those residents, she lives at Waima Bay near Te Mahia, and the recent deluge caused a huge section of the road above her house to fall away.

"The Kenepuru Road from Linkwater right through goes through our property, the rain was 24/7, three days, non stop, heavy as...I didn't even hear the slip happening it was just creaking trees and then silence, you go outside to find there's a slip."

She was completely cut off in the deluge - one slips destroyed a water tank and she was left with no power, cellphone coverage or landline for several days.

So she waited, taking her saxophone outside to play Bridge Over Troubled Water as the rain kept coming.

"It's not knowing if you can get out or is the slip going to come down, someone finally came down the track and the harbourmaster came which was a great relief."

Her house has now been yellow-stickered and with no road access, she first walked out with her cat and some belongings, then she managed to catch a ride on someone else's boat to get out and now is using the barge to bring her car out to Havelock.

She said the road from Linkwater to her place along Kenepuru Road was like driving on sand dunes, mud on both sides with a skinny road in between.

"There's a lot of us that don't always have boat access, we use the car because its easy to get from A to B and then to find, well hey, we might not look after you guys, well that is not fair."

"We pay the rates, what's the rates for? We don't use anything else...we just want a nice solid road that we can all use."

Johnson's Barge Service skipper Jared Rowe said since the deluge they've been transporting people and vehicles up and down the Kenepuru Sound and out to French Pass and d'Urville Island, five days a week.

"We've been carting people in and out, taking Marlborough Lines in to get power back on, we have been doing groceries for people that can't get out."

Raymond Smith is another resident using the barge service. He was in Picton when the rain hit and this week was able to return home to Anamāhanga - Port Gore, for the first time in a month.

He's been staying at motor camps or in the driveway of friends houses in his car.

Smith drove onto the barge in Havelock loaded with supplies including groceries, diesel and beer for his cousins who had been stuck in the bay.

It was a two-hour trip via barge to Fish Bay, then an hour's drive to his home at Anamāhanga.

Smith said he was a bit anxious about what damage he might find once he got home.

"Things look okay from the outside, the people that were working on the road could only see outside, but we do believe that there could be some water issues on the inside and the power was off for four days so the freezers would have gone down and we've got to deal with any food that's gone spoiled.

"I've got chickens and sheep and maybe some lambs have come out."

It's a reconaissance mission for Smith, who will spend a few days assessing what work needs to be done before returning to Havelock.

He said the barge service was a lifeline for many residents and the Marlborough District Council subsidies made a difference.

Waitaria Bay resident Staggers had finished a week's work on the Cook Strait ferry when he got onto the barge in Havelock with a truck and trailer load of gravel.

"It's more of a pain in the ass than anything, in some ways you get that old Sounds-y feeling because people they can't just drive here anymore, it's a lot more cut off."

He's not too optimistic about being able to use the Kenepuru Road again.

"Forget about it, I think the road is actually stuffed and they never should have tarsealed it, because that's where all the problems are, the water gets under the tarseal and it's just lifted the whole road up, that's the way it looks to me anyway."

Mel James and her partner were using the barge to get to their home in Waitaria Bay, for the first time since the rain.

They've heard reports that parts of the Kenepuru Road are almost non-existent.

James said going forward, some clarity on the state of the Kenepuru Road would be reassuring.

"At the minute there doesn't seem to be a straight answer, I think it would be nice if they just said, 'yes we've lost the roads, but we'll be putting them back in'.

"It's quite devastating and I think it would be be good if there was a plan, I think it would put a lot of people's minds at rest. It's hard to know what the future holds when no one's really giving anything away."

She said a return trip by road cost around $80 in fuel, but with the subsidy was around $400 on the barge, a cost which would be tough for some.

An online community meeting will be held to update Marlborough Sounds residents next Friday.