The wait is nearly over for residents and holiday-makers left stranded in Lake Ōhau village since Tuesday morning.
Floodwater washed away a bridge on Lake Ōhau Road, near State Highway 8, cutting off access to the Lake Ōhau township. Photo: Supplied / Bevan Rusbatch
Floodwaters washed out the only bridge into the alpine village with crews working in the rain and cold for days to restore access.
Clean-ups are underway across Te Waipounamu following the severe storm, but the risk of flooding has not quite receded for others.
Dunedin business owner Jonas was helping his girlfriend's family move into their new holiday home in Lake Ōhau village when the rain started.
He said it was stressful finding out that the only access in and out of the village had been cut and would be out for days.
"First I was a bit worried because we have a business in Dunedin so finding staff and not overworking staff because it's hard to be two people stuck and then trying to find cover."
Fortunately, his staff had been supportive and pitched in, he said.
Jonas originally planned to head home yesterday and be back at work today, but said being stuck was like an enforced holiday.
"There's quite a few bunk beds that needed to be built which took quite a few hours. It's kind of a perfect pastime, a bit like building a puzzle in the rain.
"Kind of being forced to settle in and actually build things rather than just taking the holiday - which we definitely also have been."
The support from the community has been great with people sharing supplies while others have been driven in, he said.
"(We've) gotten calls from other houses nearby that aren't here giving us permission to go and pillage their freezers which has been helpful.
"Just like getting a few more supplies and food cos we didn't really bring up that much so it's been super handy."
On Tuesday, a brown, foamy torrent swept away the Lake Ōhau Road bridge.
Waitaki district mayor Gary Kircher said it had been hard work trying to bridge the gap and the new road should be open to light vehicles on Friday.
"Basically working in a moving stream yesterday. They were putting large boulders down and so placing them properly and making sure that they weren't going to be moving from there."
It was just one repair out of many needed in his district following flooding, slips, bridge washouts and mud, he said.
His early estimated cost was more than $1 million, and he said the council would likely seek assistance from Waka Kotahi to help foot the bill.
On the coast, Timaru was in a state of emergency with some Pleasant Point residents near damaged stop banks evacuated last night.
Timaru District Council deputy mayor Steve Wills said the conditions seemed to be improving but cordons remained in place and the Opihi River was flowing high.
A map showing the area of Opihi River through Pleasant Point where the stopbank was damaged. Photo: Supplied / Timaru District Council
A few people had tried to breach the cordons and return to their homes, he said.
"It's mostly unfortunate the behaviour of a very small number of people just forced the action that we had to make a decision around the emergency declaration.
"It's just ensuring we kept everyone safe."
Timaru residents were being encouraged to continue to conserve water until at least next week.
Timaru District Council has been thanking its residents on observing the current water conservation notice.
A spokesperson said staff were working around the clock to manage the storage levels in its reservoirs.
In order to avoid a boil water notice the council is asking all urban residents to continue to conserve their water usage, until at least Monday.
Ashburton Mayor Neil Brown was calling for more central government funding for mitigation work to get shingle out of the district's rivers, and to help protect from future extreme weather events.
"Climate change is here. These events are happening more often. Councils can't rate for events that may happen in the future," Brown told Checkpoint.
"We can only rate for monies that we're going to spend in that one year that we're going to spend it. We don't have slush funds to put money away."
He said local government leaders needed to co-fund work with central government to mitigate climate change events.
Further north, in Christchurch, the Heathcote and Avon rivers have burst their banks in places, causing flooding and road closures.
By 8.30am, the floodwaters were lapping an inch away from the front door of Peter Timbs Meats in Edgeware.
Retail manager David Timbs said he was dreading a repeat of last week's week flood.
"The council turned up with a large suction/vacuum truck and they have been doing that ever since so they've been keeping it at bay.
"It's dropped back about a metre now so they've been very helpful."
MetService said the low would move away overnight with much calmer conditions on the horizon.
