Far North communities hope a massive hole in State Highway 1 north of Kaitaia will be fixed by Easter.
Repair work under way. Photo: RNZ / Nita Blake-Person
Torrential rain on Friday carved a 20 metre wide, five metre-deep trench in the road about 40 kilometres north of Kaitaia, cutting off the only public road to Cape Reinga.
No mail has been able to get through and commuters are having to find other routes to get around, but many locals are finding silver linings in their new-found isolation.
Northland farmer Darcy was driving one of the 20 or so vehicles that joined a police convoy heading North along a forestry track this morning - about 40 other vehicles were doing the same thing in the opposite direction.
Like many locals he's been mainly driving along 90 mile beach to avoid the washout, but said having State Highway 1 cut off had been disruptive.
"It has held a few people out, just getting goods out - and in, the mail hasn't gone through... groceries and things like that."
The forestry track adds around 40 minutes to commuters' journeys. It's unsealed and while it was muddy and rough for the first few days the state highway was out of action, graders have whipped it into a smooth enough state.
Convoys have been taking place twice daily - at morning and night - but diverting traffic along the track means businesses in the small town of Pukenui, just north of the washout, have been hard hit.
Darren Axe runs a coffee cart in the area and said things had been terrible for businesses over the past three days.
Rochelle Hodgson was one of several locals at the Pukenui side of the hole today checking on progress.
She teaches at Kaingaroa School, on the other side, and hadn't been able to make it to work since the road was taken out.
But she said it hadn't been all bad - she had been enjoying riding her bike with less traffic on the road and even fit in a swim at the beach.
But for the washout wasn't going to get the better of Pukenui Primary School student Tia Rose Niho.
Tia, 11, usually gets driven to school but when the road was cut off her mum helped her find a new way of getting around - using a paddle board.
She said the new commute was "pretty cool".
And while the disruption might be putting off some visitors, Finnish tourist Leija Salmivierta said she was enjoying the extra sunshine.
"We were prepared, we have petrol and gas for the cooking and food... I actually enjoy it more now because there's less tourists."
Some people have been enjoying the quieter pace so much they're hopeful the road will never be repaired.
Pukenui local Ollie Olsen said the washout had created an opportunity for the region.
"So that's separated us from the mainland, creating a new island called the Far Far North.
"We'll have to build a wall of course, we'll see if we can borrow the money from Trump," he said.
The Tranport Agency said convoys were being planned through the forestry track again tomorrow but it hoped at least one lane of the repaired road will be open later this week.
