Storms on the coast

As we prepared the evening before for our journey down the coast to the glaciers, we were having trouble with google maps.  It kept routing us into Christchurch and back around to the southern coast with a 10+ hour trip, instead of directly down the coast for a 2 hour trip.  I sent a message to the tour company confirming our appointment for the next day and asking about the roads.  They confirmed that the roads were ‘now’ open from the big storm that came through several weeks ago, but there was a curfew on the road from 9 pm to 7 am while the work crews continued to clean up the mess.  Since we were looking at our map after 9 pm, it was rerouting us the long way.

As we started off the next day, we were very curious about the storm damage we might see.  I was expecting downed trees across the road or something, but it was massive hillside slides along one part of the road that left giant boulders, trees and mud all along the road.

Dirt moving equipment waiting for the road to close to get back to work.

Looking uphill from part of the slide.

The entire hillside came down on the road.

This part of the canyon was full of sharp switch backs, no where else to go to reroute traffic, must clear the road.

It was down to one lane with holds on both ends as each direction of traffic took turns.

So much debris washed down.

This is a view from the distance.  The brown patch on the hillside is where one of several slides took place.