Cyclone Gabrielle caused extensive damage in Wairoa in February. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Three Department of Conservation walking tracks on the East Coast remain closed, with damaged roads delaying their opening.
Three out of thirty tracks have been off-limits to the public for months, including Mangakawa track in Mōrere Scenic Reserve, Te Reinga Scenic Reserve, and Otoko Walkway.
Department of Conservation (DOC) Tai Rāwhiti operations manager Matt Tong said Cyclone Gabrielle had eroded the edges of streams, cut off track access and thrown debris onto the paths.
"[There was] lots of minor damage -- there were slips and windfall and dropouts and blocked drains, debris build-up on bridges, so there was heaps of manpower needed to clear all that stuff and get the tracks back to good standard."
Access to the Te Reinga Scenic Reserve Walk was cut off by a broken bridge.
"You basically can't get there, there's a bridge that's washed out, or been significantly damaged, so we're waiting on that to be repaired."
Tong said he expected it would be open by Christmas, but Wairoa District Council said it could not give a timeline for its reopening.
Flooding in Wairoa after Cyclone Gabrielle. Photo: Hawke's Bay Civil Defence Emergency Management Group
A slip on Otoko Hill closed State Highway 2 in March, and the side road where the track started remained closed, meaning DOC could not get in to assess Otoko Walkway - and visitors would not be able to reach it anyway.
The timeline for repairing this track was less certain, Tong said, but he understood the road was not a high priority project.
Mangakawa Track relied on the DOC-owned Mōrere Hot Springs reopening, as this was its entry point.
Tong said most of the queries they had received about cyclone closures had been about the pools.
Repairs to the pool complex's damaged septic system were due to start soon, and Tong said they were hoping the pools would reopen in February.
The level of damage caused by recent cyclones was unprecedented, he said. Cyclone Hale, which hit the region the month before Cyclone Gabrielle, had impacted other attractions, particularly the campsite at Anaura Bay. It was closed last summer, but was due to reopen this Labour Weekend.
The storms have taken a toll on native plants and wildlife too.
"We've got a really threatened species in the kākā beak," he said. The native plant tends to grow on bluffs all around the East Coast, and was heavily predated on by goats and deer.
"We've got a lot of work underway this month to go and survey those sites and make sure those plants are still surviving."
