{"id":242045,"date":"2026-01-20T06:19:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T06:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/242045\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T06:19:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T06:19:07","slug":"waioweka-gorge-swiss-family-separated-from-belongings-after-slips-cut-off-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/242045\/","title":{"rendered":"Waioweka Gorge: Swiss family separated from belongings after slips cut off road"},"content":{"rendered":"
Overnight they heard cars and trucks driving on the road, but it was quiet by 8am. <\/p>\n
That all changed within the hour as cars started entering the campsite \u201clike refugees\u201d after being stranded by slips and flooding along the highway.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was no mobile connection and nobody knew what was going to happen,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Police were contacted by phone through a satellite connection and others stranded along the route were dropped off by helicopter at the campsite.<\/p>\n
They were later flown out by a NZDF helicopter to Matawai and from there were driven by police to Gisborne.<\/p>\n
They had a lot of personal possessions, but could only take one bag per person. <\/p>\n
The family spent their first night in Gisborne with a local family, then shifted to a hotel.<\/p>\n
Maja Hugli and her family were stuck in the Waioweka Gorge. She is pictured with her children, Maliya, 9, and Mael, 11. Photo \/ Anne-Marie de Bruin<\/p>\n
After the marathon this Saturday, they will head to the South Island before flying home to Zurich from Christchurch.<\/p>\n
Hugli said while it was an ordeal, she was grateful that \u201cno one was injured\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we got to see the new chopper from the New Zealand Defence Force.\u201d<\/p>\n
Locals had been very helpful after she posted on Facebook about potentially getting back their left-behind possessions. <\/p>\n
She said her husband was being taken back to the campsite today and it was hoped he would be able to drive it to Gisborne to continue their holiday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Overnight they heard cars and trucks driving on the road, but it was quiet by 8am. That all…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242046,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,1863,80654,142234,3588,4731,2109,3011,71,121901,2883,3025,111,43,139,69,6662,1314,22215,2848,89818,2249,90578,165,2846,9182,142210,4998],"class_list":["post-242045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-after","tag-back","tag-belongings","tag-camper","tag-cut","tag-days","tag-family","tag-four","tag-from","tag-gorge","tag-hope","tag-most","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-off","tag-road","tag-separated","tag-severe","tag-slips","tag-soon","tag-swiss","tag-their","tag-them","tag-tourists","tag-waioweka","tag-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}