More harrowing footage has emerged showing the destruction left behind by Cyclone Gita when it struck the South Island last week, with some houses and roads in Kaikoura being completely swallowed up by massive landslips.
Gary Iken of North Canterbury Transport Infrastructure Recovery told 1 NEWS Cyclone Gita turned a lot of small creeks into major waterfalls in the Kaikoura region.
"The small creeks turned into major flows carrying a lot of debris with it, and we have probably had about 100,000 cubic metres come down through here," he said.
The area has seen its fair share of transport woes, with the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake and recent bad weather.
"It was like groundhog day, we basically had to come back to day one again, but luckily we have had a bit of experience with that and we got stuck back in from Wednesday last week," Mr Iken said.
The NZ Transport Agency says it's unlikely State Highway 1 through Kaikoura will open until the end of this week.
KiwiRail says trains on the Kaikoura main north line are also unlikely to be up and running again by this week.
The Inland Rd Route 70, via Waiau, remains open to get to and from Kaikoura.
NZTA is urging drivers who are heading to and from Picton to travel via Lewis Pass.
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