Heavy Seas Wash Over Main Road Near Kaikoura

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31660, 22 April 1968, Page 1

Heavy Seas Wash Over Main Road Near Kaikoura

Heavy seas, swept up by a storm centred near the Chatham Islands, battered Kaikoura yesterday and left sand, seaweed and stones strewn across the Picton-Bluff Highway. The road was flooded at high tide.

No damage was done to shops or houses. The high tide soon after midday was watched by hundreds of Kaikoura residents and travellers passing through.

There was no wind during the high seas and a light mist hung over Kaikoura for most of the day. All fishing boats were at anchor and none broke its moorings at the first high tide. A spokesman at the weather office at Harewood said last evening that the storm centre was moving away and the seas would subside.

The sea flowed across the road at the Esplanade, in Kaikoura township, at Oaro, 12 miles south of Kaikoura, and at Mangamaunu, 10 miles north. The beach was badly scoured opposite the Kaikoura railway station where the heaviest seas swept up the beach and over land with lupins and trees to a road 100 yards from the beach which is 20ft above sea level.

The Automobile Association service officer in Kaikoura (Mr G. Elson) said last evening that although there was water on the road there was no danger to traffic. Wet Week-end Christchurch had another wet week-end. To 9 a.m. yesterday, 71 points of rain had fallen in 48 hours. Surface flooding is still fairly extensive. A spokesman for the Christ"hurch Drainage Board said that ground water levels had -o-oral 1 '- risen in *he la c t week. Rises ranged from Ift to 3ft 6in. The rise of 3ft 6in was at a Drainage Board test bore in Riccarton; the Ift rise occurred at another bore in Bromley. According to the weather office, drizzle and light rain yesterday was extensive along the east coast between Dunedin and Kaikoura. Yesterday’s maximum temperature was 56 degrees. A weather office official said that the week-end temperature was reasonably constant There was a maximum of 53 degrees at noon on Saturday and the temperature did not go below 51 degrees yesterday. According to the Automobile Association, no roads in Canterbury were closed. All flights in and out of Christchurch were normal yesterday except for a Dakota which, because Timaru Airport was closed, flew direct from Oamaru to Christchurch instead of landing at Timaru.

Passengers on the overnight express from Invercargill to Christchurch had to be transferred to coaches at Milton because of flooding south of Dunedin. This was not expected to affect the arrival time of the express at Christchurch this morning.