Heavy Rain and Slips

What a morning we woke up to.  The rain had been coming down in droves, and we were having our breakfast and preparing to travel down to the Hutt Valley to meet our SLG friends for lunch.  Then the phone rang to inform us of a large slip closing the south bound lane of SH1 at Paekakariki.  Just as well that Helen let us know as we were oblivious to this piece of important information.  Ever adventurous, Robin decided that we would set off on our journey, and maybe travel over the Paekakariki Hill Road, if possible.  Not my favourite road at all, I must admit.  The traffic was all banked up on SH1 so we left them all to it and drove up the Hill Road and this is what we found.  Oh no, a slip on this road as well.

Clearing a small slip on the road

Before too long the road was cleared and we made our way up the hill.  The wind was blowing, the rain was still coming down, the road was rather windy, so we had to take our time and travel sensibly.  

Heading up Paekakariki Hill Road

We eventually made it safe and sound to our destination at Trentham, where we were welcomed into Calvin and Helen’s home for morning tea and a catch up.  They weren't sure if we would be able to make the journey in such bad conditions.  We were a smaller group this time, with two of our group unable to make it due to a medical appointment.

Helen had booked our group into lunch at the café at the Naenae Bowling Club. The meals are very reasonably priced, and at $10 for a roast meal we couldn’t have done better.  No wonder the café (and the car park outside)was quite busy.

 

Lunch at the Naenae Bowling Club Café

Delicious plates of roast pork and roast beef and roast veggies smothered in gravy were delivered to our table, along with orders of fish and chips.  It was all so tasty.  Then four ice cream sundaes arrived, which were quickly devoured – not for me though, I had a cream donut, much more to my taste.  After enjoying our meals we sat and chatted so long that almost all the other patrons had departed  - time for us to go too, we decided.

Trish, Helen, Calvin, Robin and Jenny

With the weather still bad we all decided to head home, who knows what we would find on our trip back to Levin?  Driving back over the Kennedy Good Bridge we could see that the Hutt River was getting rather swollen, no doubt the low lying public car parks on the riverside were starting to get flooded, as they often do in heavy rain.

And what’s this, such a long line of traffic banked up.  It took us 90 mins to get from Pauatahanui to Paekakariki on our drive home, a distance of 21km, most of the time spent at a stand still on the Pukerua Hill Road.  Finally the traffic started moving and I managed to get a snap or two of Kapiti Island, looking very grey and moody on such a rough day.

Kapiti Island

And here’s the problem of all the traffic woes.  The slip had derailed a train as well, we didn’t realise that.  No wonder we had seem some buses on the road with signs stating “Rail Replacement”    Luckily the train wasn’t swept right off the rails, but was still sitting there, waiting to be removed.  The road was down to a single lane and workmen were still hard at work  tidying up the debris.

The slip was here

We were pleased to arrive home safe and sound, it had been a long day.  But the excitement wasn't over, our Prime Minister announced that the Delta variant of Covid had finally arrived on our shores, and the whole country was going into lockdown at midnight!  Seven days lockdown for Auckland and three days for the rest of the country at this stage, with a review on Friday afternoon.  Guess that will affect our trip up north so we will just have to wait and see how  things pan out.  The whole country is supportive of Jacinda’s efforts to keep us safe and stamp this virus out and stay at home, except for a tiny number of idiot protesters who really should know better.  With any luck we will get away soon.