A dropout on the road to Waipiro Bay, north of Gisborne in Tairāwhiti. Photo: RNZ/Tom Kitchin
Hundreds of roads in Tairāwhiti are in a state of disarray, with some residents unable to move for months because their roads are impassable.
It comes after a year of major storms, with a year's worth of rain in nine months and a clean up bill in the tens of millions.
Dale Ferris is a resident in Nuhiti Beach, also known as Marahea, a tiny coastal community well off the main road about a 90-minute drive north of Gisborne.
Just last week, Ferris drove his ute on the road from his home for the first time in about nine months.
The old road is actually hanging about 10 metres down the cliff.
The last nine months had been "quite trying, bit traumatic at times", Ferris said.
"You can't get out, you try and keep yourself in condition, but that's a non-event."
When the slip first hit Ferris was unable to get out for six weeks. But eventually, he had to try.
Dale Ferris has had a slip block the road to his house for nine months. Photo: RNZ/Tom Kitchin
"Well, I actually navigated a walk track through the bottom section here of the slip, going through the natives that had been pushed down. It got a bit gnarly on the other side, quite a steep section, so I cut steps into the bank."
If he left home for work, he had to watch the forecast to make sure he could return.
"I have to watch the weather because the road is so wet, from A to B that I don't want to put myself at risk."
Ferris still did not think the new road, a temporary track for quad bikes and walkers, was safe enough to drive in his ute and would not do it again as "the risk factor is too high".
Up the East Coast north of Gisborne, State Highway 35 and local council roads are still in poor condition, especially north of Tokomaru Bay, where the bridge across the river was cut in half.
Parts of the road have fallen down cliffs and been washed away. Drivers have to dodge potholes, swerve in and out of single lanes and gravel.
Waipiro Bay is a small coastal community off the main road between Te Puia Springs and Ruatorea.
Resident Len Walker said the road to his place was full of dropouts.
"It's constantly getting fixed but constantly gets wiped out. The fixes are temporary and that's probably the frustrating part."
Len Walker says the temporary fixes to the roads are "frustrating". Photo: RNZ / Tom Kitchin
Gisborne District Council's director of community lifelines Dave Wilson acknowledged the roads were in a "fragile state".
"We had the cyclone event that came through in March - which declared a state of emergency, caused a lot of damage across the network and we've had a really wet winter and the network's still moving and sliding around."
In a spot far inland from Gisborne, near a place called Whatatutu on the way to a forestry block, the road had washed away down the hill.
"The road's in the middle of a slip. Now this one keeps dropping every time it rains," Wilson said.
"Now what we've got to do is remove the trees that were planted on top."
Gisborne District Council director of community lifelines Dave Wilson says the region's roads are in a "fragile" state. Photo: RNZ / Tom Kitchin
The council planned to alter the road to divert the water away - but that was only one problem out of around 600 across the region, Wilson said.
He said the council could not afford to do everything and was asking the national transport agency, Waka Kotahi, to help cover costs.
Waka Kotahi said that funding was going through the approval process but on top of that it had its own problems - running the state highway network.
Its North Island maintenance and operations manager Jaclyn Hankin had a mantra she used on the roads - "it won't be pretty but it'll be open".
"We communicate that a lot with the communities around - it is likely that it won't be sealed, it will be a gravel road as such, we will grade it, we will keep it maintained but until we know exactly what fix we can do there is no point going in and doing a beautiful new road if it's just going to keep moving."
There was a lot of roadworks, in particular on State Highway 35 and Hankin said between this month and April next year, about 100km of highways in Tairāwhiti would be resealed or rebuilt, more than 15 percent of the region's highway network.
Contractors are in the middle of an intensive two-week period working on over 20 sites, between Ruatorea and Pōtaka near the East Cape.
Furthermore, Hankin said the agency was refreshing a business case for the highway looking at long-term resilience, which would go to its board and the government for approval.
