Civil defence authorities were late yesterday hopeful there would be no more need for highway closures in and out of Hawke's Bay in the cold snap which caused truckies and other motorists to abandon vehicles for up to 24 hours in snow between Napier and Taupo.
Emergency management adviser Jim Tetlow understood all vehicles stranded on the highway had been recovered by early yesterday afternoon, which included taking about 25 drivers by bus from Napier to Te Pohue yesterday and ferrying them in "4x4s" to the vehicles they had left late-morning to early-afternoon on Thursday.
He estimated accommodation had to be found for 15-20 of those who'd had to leave their vehicles, and yesterday more than half of those taken to recover their vehicles were truck drivers. A small number were motorists who had chosen to take the Hawke's Bay route south because of the conditions and threats of closure of State Highway 1's Desert Rd.
The State Highway 5 link between Napier and Taupo was closed by the NZTA about 8.30am on Thursday and it was reopened about 2.15pm yesterday.
Mr Tetlow said that while rain was still expected, the coldest of the snap appeared to have passed and no further closures were expected, although conditions for driving were "adverse" with care needed.