Linda Hall: Close off gorge talk and do something

Linda Hall

My earliest memory of the Manawatu Gorge is not a nice one.

I must have been about 10 or 11 and my mother, my younger brother and I were en route to my aunt and uncle's home in Palmerston North.

Mum was driving her Morris 1000 and I think I must have been in the front seat (there was always a fight about who got to sit in the front) because I vividly remember seeing rocks and dirt starting to fall down the cliff on to the road in front of us.

We stopped abruptly, but thankfully it didn't come to much and we were able to drive over the few rocks and debris that landed on the road and continue our journey.

I didn't like that windy, narrow road at all and after that I was always nervous about going through it.

Much later in life, when I lived in Dannevirke, I did get used to driving from one end to the other and back, though I was always thankful to get through it.

The scenery might be beautiful when you are in the passenger seat but when driving all I could ever think of was the hillside inches from the car on one side and then on the return journey the huge drop inches away on the other side.

Over the years there have been slips and road closures, it's a miracle that no one has been hurt by these.

Some of the boulders coming down that hillside have been huge.

However, the latest slip, or should I say landslide, discovered by contractors on Monday morning is huge.

About 10,000 cubic metres of material, including large boulders, now lie across the SH3 road.

This is surely the end of the road for the gorge.

Transport Minister Simon Bridges said on telly yesterday morning that they have robotic proof there is mass land movement in the gorge - no kidding.

It's been closed since April and the people of Tararua are hurting, especially the businesses in Woodville, with motorists bypassing the town to take alternative routes over the Saddle Rd or the Pahiatua Track.

Mr Bridges said money was not a problem - if that's the case why haven't they made a decision and started making plans either for a new route or spending some major money on at least one of the alternatives?

If it was Auckland that was "cut off" there would be no mucking around.

But still the Government can't give the people of Tararua an answer.

Mr Bridges said they would get "consulting in place" - surely this is already in place - and "we still can't give a definite answer [about a solution] but it's less likely to be the gorge reopening".

On the subject of economic relief, it doesn't sound as if that's very likely either.

Mr Bridges said money would be spent on a permanent route and getting traffic back to the businesses.

I don't blame people who live in this region and have businesses, and those who used the gorge every day to commute to work, for being angry.

Mr Bridges said yesterday he would be in the region today, so I hope those affected get a chance to have their say.

But there's been so much talk already. It's time for action. Build a bridge, a tunnel or a road - do something now.

* Linda Hall is Hawke's Bay Today's assistant editor.