Residents in the Kenepuru Sound finally have road access, more than four months after the July storm caused significant damage to the roading network.
The checkpoint on Kenepuru Road where residents are allowed through at specified times. Photo: RNZ / Samantha Gee
But the repair bill is estimated to cost up to $90 million, and it could be another 18 months before visitors can use the road again.
Until now, residents have relied on boats, barges and planes to get in and out, with the rural postman delivering groceries, medicine and other essentials.
At the very end of Kenepuru Road, Lynley Perkins Clegg and Michael Clegg run Hopewell Lodge, where they have lived for 22 years. Their home is 75 kilometres from the turnoff at Linkwater, a journey which usually takes two hours.
They were able to drive out for the first time on Sunday, after access was reopened for residents. It was the first time Michael Clegg had seen the road and the extent of the damage.
Hopewell Lodge owners Lynley Perkins Clegg and Michael Clegg. Photo: Rich J Jones Photography
"I think the council has done a great job as far as we're concerned. I mean, to tackle something of that scale and in a few months to get to a stage where we can drive out it's pretty big so we really appreciate that."
The road closure meant many of their summer bookings had been cancelled. While people could catch a water taxi, fly or leave their car further down the road, many didn't want to.
Clegg said the couple were desperately trying to keep a positive outlook on their business.
Lynley Perkins Clegg said while the council subsidised air, water taxi and barge services were fantastic but booked out quickly and had limited schedules.
She would love to see the road opened for visitors before next summer.
"It sort of happened in the middle of what I would say was the quiet season, when a lot of the tourism businesses are closed anyway in the Sounds but now coming out of that where it's going to get busy, it's really starting starting to bite the reality of the situation, I think it's really hitting home."
Dave McFarlane and Dorothy Lewis have been back in their Nopera Bay home for a week. They were away the weekend the July storm hit - for what was only meant to be a couple of days.
McFarlane has lived in Nopera Bay, 66 kilometres down the Kenepuru Road, for 40 years.
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Without road access and with medical appointments to attend, they spent the last four months living in Blenheim.
"We came home, because now we're reasonably sure we can drive back out to attend to those [appointments]. We've been home three times in that period. But it's cost us anywhere between $150 to $180 ... because you can't just walk away from your home."
He said the Marlborough District Council had done a very good job clearing huge amounts of slip debris, but its communication had been lacking and more support was needed for farmers, who were dependent on using heavy vehicles to get stock and feed supplies in and out of Kenepuru.
Ian Hamlin, who runs glamping accommodation Ngahere Hou with partner Kate Betteley at the head of Kenepuru Sound, closed the business for two months after the storm. It had been severely impacted by Covid-19 restrictions, the July storm and the subsequent closure of the Queen Charlotte Track.
The road access would now enable them to transport guests in and out and provide more certainty about getting supplies.
"It's been really hard, mostly because we've felt kind of frustrated that we couldn't see what was happening. It's been a huge relief to have even limited access, enough to be able to get out and make plans around how we can get people in and out and goods in and out."
Marlborough Roads recovery team manager Steve Murrin said on the Kenepuru Rd alone, there were a number of overslips and underslips that had weakened the roading network, turning the lives of residents upside down.
"They've relied on these roads to get to and from town, get to medical appointments, things like that and that hasn't been able to happen until we got the road open."
He said recent community meetings gave officials a better understanding of what peoples needs were as they moved forward with the recovery.
Marlborough Roads recovery team manager Steve Murrin. Photo: RNZ / Samantha Gee
"A lot of these sites are very complex and there's a lot of design works and that still to do before we can do the optioneering to see what are going to be the best repairs. There's still a lot of work in front of us and it's probably going to be an 18 month programme before we get these roads back to what they were."
The options for reinstatement of the most challenging sites included cutting back into the hills, or building retaining walls on the outside to reinstate the road.
Murrin said the roading network in the Sounds, particularly the Kenepuru, remained in a fragile state and the inclement weather posed problems for the recovery.
"It's been a wet winter and that's given us issues, the rain we've had over the last few days has caused us more problems. We've been warned that there may be a cyclone coming next week, and it's the last thing we need and we've been told the coming summer is likely to be wet as well."
Waka Kotahi NZTA Top of the South system manager Andrew James said the road needed to be of a safer standard before the general public could be let through.
"Now the road is open, [the residents] understand it, they see how narrow and how unsafe this road is and they're very cautious and careful and we're grateful to them for that. But the general public wouldn't have that same recognition so there's a higher risk, and we're just not prepared at this point in time to have that risk upon us."
Heavy rain, weather events or small earthquakes would further damage the road.