Weather causes giant slip in Taranaki

Wet weather has caused a giant slip to block State Highway 3 north of New Plymouth today, and disrupted the final Hanover investor briefing on its takeover by Allied Farmers.

The slip occurred about 1.5km south of Mokau, 70km northeast of Waitara, about 9am, a police spokeswoman said.

This afternoon some traffic was being let slowly through as emergency services worked to clear the slip.

An engineer had been called in because of rocks, she said.

Low cloud closed New Plymouth's airport, so Auckland-based Hanover Finance executives could not fly in mid-morning for the briefing in the city. The briefing was being fronted instead by Allied Farmers managing director Rob Alloway, who arrived in New Plymouth last night, the Taranaki Daily News reported.

- NZPA