KEY POINTS:
A new lake created by a landslide in the Mt Aspiring National Park was on the verge of bursting its dam last night as authorities looked on.
About 60 residents of the village of Makarora have been warned to stay away from the Makarora River flats in case a torrent of water is unleashed on its way into Lake Wanaka.
But the community felt in no danger.
"There's more media interest than there is from locals," said Makarora Country Cafe owner David Howe. "It's a unique geological event, but the doomsday predictions are way off track."
The new lake was discovered last week in the upper Young River Valley, about 2km long and 500m at its widest point.
Heavy rain and snowmelt had built the lake up to within 1m of the naturally formed dam late yesterday afternoon, said Department of Conservation Wanaka area manager Paul Hellebrekers. It was inevitable it would overflow, perhaps today or tomorrow.
"What will then happen is that it may come over the top and form its own channel through the dam and there will be no great flow, or it may cause a collapse of part of the dam."
DoC, the Queenstown Lakes District Council and Otago Regional Council were working on monitoring of the lake and contingency plans for large flows of water down the river.
A camera was set up near the lake yesterday to take images every minute as a record of the anticipated breach and a radio system was in place that should alert authorities.
Mr Hellebrekers said it was unclear if the new lake would remain, and what shape it may take, after a breach ofits dam.
"It's a bit of a guessing game. Lots of lakes similar to this have been formed in a similar way. Some still exist and some no longer exist."
