water was still flowing down from the 200-square-metre slip<\/a> on Friday afternoon.<\/p>\nPani said Taurangakoau Bridge over Mangaowira Stream had partially washed away, with work underway to secure contractor access across the bridge.<\/p>\n
She urged people to be cautious about driving in the open sections of State Highway 35, where workers were still clearing debris, trees and culverts.<\/p>\n
“If you don’t need to travel up there it’s not a good idea to go tiki-touring to have a look. It is still a construction zone.”<\/p>\n
State Highway 2, between Gisborne and \u014cp\u014dtiki through the Waioeka Gorge, was still closed – forcing a long detour through Napier, and State Highway 5 to Taup\u014d for those heading north, Rua said.<\/p>\n
“We do acknowledge that detour is really problematic for the community, for businesses, for freight, which is why we are working really hard to reopen state highway 2 at Waioeka, to reopen that link.”<\/p>\n
State Highway ‘critical lifeline’ for communities<\/p>\n
Tash Wanoa, Te Araroa civil defence co-ordinator, said State Highway 35 is a “critical lifeline roading network” for communities on the East Cape.<\/p>\n
“It’s what connects us to health services, lifeline utilities and supplies like Pak’n Save, supermarkets, even fuel, gas, generators, we need State Highway 35 to survive.”<\/p>\n
Te Araroa was cut off right now – and Wanoa said she was hoping access would be restored soon.<\/p>\n
She said once State Highway 35 on both ends reopened, Hicks Bay residents would have the option to go to \u014cp\u014dtiki, and Te Araroa residents could go to Gisborne.<\/p>\n
But Wanoa said the Hicks Bay and Te Araroa communities were closely connected, with Hicks Bay needing Matakoa Health Centre, in Te Araroa, for health services and fuel.<\/p>\n
The volunteer fire brigades also worked together, and Te Araroa would now have to access St John services from Ruatoria, about 30-45 minutes away on a good day.<\/p>\n
“It’s really critical that that hill is reinstated, so that we can key lifelines in.”<\/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":"The landslide at State Highway 35, Punaruku, on the way to Hicks Bay. Photo: Supplied It will take…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248384,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45],"class_list":{"0":"post-248383","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-podcasts","15":"tag-public-radio","16":"tag-radio-new-zealand","17":"tag-rnz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248383","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=248383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Landslide](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/4JUCD3Q_621583276_863021343176080_4883258119736454450_n_jpg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Slips](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/4JUCGB9_Hicks_Bay_SH35_3_sides_blurred_jpg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Slips](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/4JUCGKT_Hicks_Bay_SH35_1_jpeg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n