Trying to drive home from Auckland last Friday (to Kerikeri) took six hours. This was due to a fairly average crash on State Highway 1 near Puhoi, which closed the highway.
In torturous, stop-start fashion, hundreds of us were diverted through Puhoi Village and on to appalling narrowand winding metal roads, not knowing where we were going. And then, having arrived at nowhere, we were commanded to all attempt a U-turn and go back again.
Hours later, with SH1 now opened to one lane only; I drove past the accident scene. Retrieval crews were putting two mangled motorbikes and two cars on to trailers. I counted 10 police officers standing beside the scene just gawping, along with nine of their cars.
I was dealt with rudely by the young English constable at the turn-around point near Schollums Access Road. He certainly is in need of some training in dealing with the New Zealand public.
The point is that there needs to be a detailed plan for handling SH1 closures in the North. Currently, the emergency services, and I appreciate that some are volunteers, seem to have no idea.
