Helping communities with the highs and lows
As a dairy farmer for 22 years, Michelle Ruddell knows the challenges of navigating through the highs and lows of farming.
It now takes at least two and a half hours - an hour longer than it used to.
The first thing that strikes you is the number of traffic lights on the road. I encountered at least nine sets on the journey, not to mention other 'stop-go' signals by workers. It was a case of one-way traffic to get around a series of slips, bridges and washouts that workers were busy repairing.
It was 'interesting' watching other vehicles, especially large logging or stock trucks almost tip-toe around these fragile repairs. One sensed that even a heavy shower of rain could set off another slip or washout.
Confronting was the sight of the crumbled remains of the Waikare bridge. The force of nature is stak and now there is just a single lane Bailey bridge to get through. Only one big truck is allowed on the bridge at any given time.
The road is Wairoa's lifeline south to Napier. This is the road that takes the primary produce and logs to markets south. It takes people to Napier airport, to their banks (there are none in Wairoa) and to major health facilitie - as well as family and friends.
Yet even six months after Cyclone Gabrielle and all the work that's been done, it is still at best a very tenuous and fragile link that could disappear at any moment.
