The Road to Kaikoura

The damage caused to State Highway 1 north of Kaikoura by the 7.8 magnitude earthquake on 14 November 2016 was extensive. Now the road is open, but there are still roadworks for many kilometres.

After we left Blenheim, we stopped at Kekerengu for lunch.

There was a motorhome camping on the other side of the railway line near the sea, but it wasn't easy access.

As there was no cellphone coverage (and thus, no internet) we decided not to stop, but to carry on towards Kaikoura.

Before long we hit the roadworks. Much work has been done to open the highway, and still they continue to work on repairing the roads following the earthquake back in November 2016 (15 months ago).

 Where the containers are in this next photo is where the hillside came down and covered the road.

At one stage my Google Maps app said it was about 44kms to go, but it would take 55 mins. There are a lot of "stop-go" roadworks due to one-lane sections of road.

I was impressed by the cheerful attitudes of the workers. They were always smiling and waving at the cars, and at one stop, I could hear them laughing and calling out to each other.

Lots of activity, and progress is being made.

A 110km stretch of the Kaikoura Coast rose during the earthquake—parts of it up to six metres. Some of these rocks were once underwater.

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