WINTER ISOLATION

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19699, 3 August 1938, Page 4

WINTER ISOLATION

RUNAWAY HOMESTEADS ROAD ACCESS BLOCKED STORES ALMOST FINISHED Townships and settlements on the eastern,end of the Bay of Plenty are suffering from the effects of winter isolation, now so familiar a handicap that it excites comparatively little discussion among those chiefly affected. Holiday-makers who have sought relaxation at such resorts as Waihau Bay, however, have felt keenly the sense of exclusion from the affairs of the workaday world, owing to the flooded condition of the rivers and the damage done to roads by slips and wash-outs. Homesteads in the Cape Runaway area are reported to have passed through a lean time during the past three weeks, stores having been almost exhausted owing to the prolongation of the normal intervals between the visits of transport vehicles. The Waihau accommodation house and store have been short of the "trimmings" of life, including cigarettes of popular brands. Tourists have been held there for as long as a week, owing to flooding and slips on the roads, and it was not until yesterday that egress via Hicks Bay was possible, the Whangaparaoa River having subsided sufficiently from the flood level of the past week. A consignment of stores was got through from Te Araroa last Friday, but with great difficulty, and the road was not passable for its whole distance, chiefly owing to the flooded condition of the river. Mail Transferred Four Times On the Opotiki side of Waihau Bay, the Raukokore River was flooded, a slip and a wash-out blocked the section between the Raukokore and the Kereu rivers, and the low-level bridge at Kereu was well covered by floodwaters. New construction work at Hawai was damaged by the incessant bad weather, and mail travelling from Te Kaha to Waihau Bay had to be transferred four times, the stages being from Te Kaha to Kereu, from Kereu to the slip, from the slip to the wash-out further on, from the washout to the Raukokore River, and from the river to Waihau Bay. Travellers who decided yesterday to make their way homeward via Te Araroa and Gisborne had their cars towed through the Whangaparaoa River behind bullocks, the water penetrating into the machines to a depth of 4in. The road to Opotiki was reported this morning to be improving, and it was expected that the wash-out would be repaired in time for the route to be used this afternoon.