Swollen Rivers And Slips Trap Tourists

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31277, 25 January 1967, Page 14

Swollen Rivers And Slips Trap Tourists

fNeu> Zealand Press Association)

DUNEDIN, January 24. Torrential downpours, fierce electrical storms, tourist parties trapped by slips and swollen rivers formed part of a chaotic scene in the Milford, Haast Pass and Te Anau areas tonight.

Cut communications made it impossible tonight to trace tourist parties, many of them from overseas. About 100 people are trapped either on the Milford Track or at the hotel.

One of two parties stranded after a downpour on Sunday night retreated from the Pomona Hut to Glade House today and will probably return to Te Anau tomorrow.

The other party was at Quintin when the storm struck, and it could not be ascertained tonight whether it would continue to Milford. The assistant manager of the Te Anau Hotel, Mr R. Gorman, said tonight that

walks had been cancelled for the rest of this week. He said that a few bridges and some of the track between Glade House, at the head of Lake Te Anau, and Pompolona, the first stop-over hut on the route, had been washed out. There may be further damage past Pompolona. It is believed that there is at least one party of walkers on the track under the Fiordland Park Board’s walk, but confirmation could not be obtained tonight. Worst In 13 Yean The Milford road suffered in the downpour what is thought to be the most severe damage for 13 years. There are other slips and

wash-outs along the road from Cascade Creek to Milford. A contractor based at Milford has begun repair work from that end. An N.Z. Railways bus carrying 25 passengers is believed to be stranded on the West Coast between Paringa and the Fox Glacier Hotel. Forced to Return Fifteen of the passengers spent Monday night sleeping in another bus after it had been stranded near the Ministry of Works’ camp at Big Slip, east of the Haast Pass. The usual QueenstownGreymouth bus left Queenstown at 8.25 a.m. on Monday and passed through Wanaka at about 10 a.m.

A slip across the Haast highway past Cameron Flat blocked the road and forced the bus to return to the Ministry of Works camp at Big Slip. “There were several elderly people among the 15 people on th; bus, but with the help of the men at the camp, I was able to get them comfortably settled,” said Mr Coutts, the driver of the bus. The passengers were provided with food by men at the camp.

“I got the bus started again about 2.30 p.m. today,” Mr Coutts said, “and we carried on to the Paringa Ministry of Works camp. “It was raining heavily and the road was very rough—sections were washed out and the rivers and creeks were flooding across the road the whole way.”