A motorist has been left shocked after a sinkhole suddenly swallowed up part of a State Highway in South Canterbury before his eyes today.
The incident occurred on State Highway 83 between Kurow and Waimate at around midday.
Motorist Zac Weir came across the incident unfolding as he was driving home to Waimate, in South Canterbury, after spending the New Year's break in Wanaka.
Weir says the traffic had been travelling as usual when they saw the road start to "fall away".
"So [I] started recording it and then the whole road just fell apart," he told 1 NEWS.
"The water just off the hill just washed it away."
Weir describes it as "quite loud when it fell apart" and says "happened quite quickly as well".
He said other motorists who had witnessed the incident were "quite shocked as well ... how fast it collapsed."
The New Zealand Transport Agency today closed off State Highway 83 from Aviemore to Otematata until Sunday, January 10 due to heavy flooding.
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