Floods cut off roads

Heavy downpours caused major flooding yesterday, submerging roads within hours and cutting off major travel routes in Wairarapa.

Yesterday afternoon, the main road to Martinborough, SH53, was closed due to the Waihenga Bridge being flooded.

Water also came up over the Huangarua bridge on Ponatahi Rd and South Wairarapa District Council warned it would remain closed until this morning.

Group manager infrastructure and services Mark Allingham said people should take a cautious approach on the roads.

"Obey all signs, leave with plenty of time and never cross a floodway or flooded road where the conditions can be unknown."

He said the council had received a huge amount of calls from people wondering if they would be able to get in and out of Martinborough.

Kahutara Rd was still open yesterday afternoon but he said it would probably be shut last night.

The roads were expected to open this morning.

Many roads in the northern part of the region were made impassable by the downpour.

Yesterday morning, Tora residents Maddie Harris Murphy and her mother, Sara Murphy, found themselves trapped in Wairarapa.

The Rathkeale student was trying to get to Wellington for a flight to South Africa, as part of her school's geography trip. They were planning to take a boat over the submerged road at Tuturumuri but no one was able to pick them up on the other side because of further flooding down the road.

Ms Murphy said her daughter's trip had taken a lot of planning.

"She'll be pretty disappointed if she can't go."

They were going to wait for a few hours and see if the water went down, she said.

Ms Murphy said the flooding was not unusual, especially at this time of year, but "it's particularly bad this time". They had recorded 65mm of rainfall overnight on Thursday.

Joan Taylor, office secretary at Tuturumuri School, said it had to close yesterday because of the flooding.

"The main reason is our teacher can't get through from Martinborough."

She said at noon yesterday it was pouring down and almost like tropical rain.

A "bone-chilling" weekend was in store for northern New Zealand, the MetService said, adding periods of heavy rain were likely in eastern parts of the North Island and people were advised to keep an eye on rain warnings. Overnight Thursday, rainfall reached 57mm in Masterton with one local recording 65mm of rain on their farm. South-east of Martinborough, near Tuturumuri, recorded 69mm of rain.

Wairarapa train services were also disrupted yesterday as KiwiRail repaired the sea wall along the Ngauranga-Petone section of the rail line. Since Wednesday, southerly swells and stormy weather had caused damage to the sea wall. Surface flooding also caused the closure of State Highway 56 at Opiki near Palmerston North.