Northland’s \u014cakura Bay<\/a> say they could be cut off for days after major slips obliterated the road to Whang\u0101rei.<\/p>\nGlenn Ferguson, who heads the local reserves board, said the road to the north had been closed since Sunday’s deluge washed out a bridge approach at Ngaiotonga.<\/p>\n
Another 200mm of rain on Wednesday triggered a massive slip at Helena Bay Hill on the road south to Whang\u0101rei.<\/p>\n
There were other, smaller slips between Helena Bay and \u014cakura.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/4JUEO2O_Helena_Bay_Hill_slip_1_jpg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\nA drone image captures the massive slip at Helena Bay Hill in Northland, cutting off \u014cakura Bay.
\nPhoto: Supplied \/ Ng\u0101tiwai Trust Board\n<\/p>\n
Ferguson said the latest slip was so big it could take days to clear, but locals were in good spirits and well prepared with plenty of supplies.<\/p>\n
“So we can’t go north, we can’t go south. We’ve had it before, and I guess we’ll have again in the future. I think it’s just part of living in paradise out here.”<\/p>\n
He said residents were making the most of today’s sunshine to carry on cleaning up and pumping out their properties.<\/p>\n
Ferguson said he had checked the \u014cakura Community Hall on Thursday morning to see if it had suffered any further damage overnight.<\/p>\n
The much-used, and newly renovated, hall was hit by a slip on Sunday that smashed through the back wall, poured over the stage, and filled the hall with an estimated 60 cubic metres of mud, trees and debris.<\/p>\n
![\"Floodwaters](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/4JUEO2O_Oakura_2_jpg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\nFloodwaters at \u014cakura Bay as seen from the air.
\nPhoto: Supplied \/ Ng\u0101tiwai Trust Board\n<\/p>\n
Ferguson said water was continuing to flow through the hall, but at a reduced rate, and the slip did not appear to have worsened in the overnight rain.<\/p>\n
An insurance assessor had inspected the building before the road closed, and now it was a case of waiting for council and EQC engineers to inspect the rear of the building where it had been hit by the slip.<\/p>\n
“They were due here on Friday, but I don’t know when they’ll be able to get though.”<\/p>\n
The hall would likely have to be cleared out by volunteers using buckets and wheelbarrows, but it was possible sucker trucks could at least remove the mud.<\/p>\n
Locals were upbeat and just getting on with the clean-up, Ferguson said.<\/p>\n
“They’re out in the sunshine, we’ve got all the pumps that we can muster, and we’re pumping sections out so people get into their garages and low-lying properties so we can ascertain what’s happened.”<\/p>\n
![\"Floodwaters](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/4JUEO2O_Oakura_3_jpg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\nFloodwaters at \u014cakura Bay as seen from the air.
\nPhoto: Supplied \/ Ng\u0101tiwai Trust Board\n<\/p>\n
Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u014cakura Bay Reserves Board member Malcolm Devereux, left, and chairman Glenn Ferguson start the cleanup of the devastated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245353,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[48,47,42,43,49,46,44,45,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-245352","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-podcasts","13":"tag-public-radio","14":"tag-radio-new-zealand","15":"tag-rnz","16":"tag-top-news","17":"tag-top-stories","18":"tag-topnews","19":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245352","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=245352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\u014cakura](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/4JULTCH_PD190126OAKURAHALL1_JPG.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n