The Napier-Wairoa Rd: What it’s like to drive the newly-reopened State Highway 2

Hawke’s Bay Today editor Chris Hyde drove the road from Napier to Wairoa and back on Monday. Here’s what you can expect on your trip.

It’s time to give roadworkers both past and present their dues. What they’ve done on State Highway 2 is remarkable.

The Napier-Wairoa Rd has always been a special piece of engineering. Cyclone Gabrielle smashed it, but it also affirmed that.

The forebearers of New Zealand’s roading system had the vision to build a road through sheer eroding hill country, and they did it in a way that it could, somehow, impossibly, survive a cyclone of this magnitude.

In a roughly 40km stretch between Tangoio and Waikare, small bush-lined rivers that once barely rated a mention on Hawke’s Bay’s map have been replaced by canyons.

The water has recarved Devil’s Elbow and there’s a new streaming waterfall visible briefly on your right a few kilometres before White Pine Bush. Then you round a bend and the open-sore scarring of the Putorino hill country hits hard.

But three months on, the most wondrous part of driving this road is not what nature has done to it, but what it hasn’t.

A rare spot of traffic on the Napier-Wairoa Rd on Monday. Photo / Paul Taylor

A standing ovation to the person who designed the Waikoau Bridge over the Aropaoanui River about 10km before Tūtira. The fact that its old bones withstood the torrents that clearly swept through it is a marvel.

The road surface itself has proved equally resilient. It hasn’t even been resealed in more than a few places, because it hasn’t needed to be.

I expected plenty of shingle, but there wasn’t much at all. The seal seems to have survived the rain, and the potholes have been fixed in preparation for reopening.

Our present-day roadworkers built a new bridge (and a clever new bridge entry) over the Waikare Gorge. They’ve shovelled dozens of slips, felled broken trees, and secured several sites from the precipice.

Now, three months after Cyclone Gabrielle, it’s definitely ready for daytime traffic again.

Deputy mayor of Wairoa Denise Eaglesome-Karekare, and Hastings Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst linked together at the opening of the Napier-Wairoa Rd. So are the two districts now. Photo / Paul Taylor

While there’s still destruction (metal barriers lie twisted and plenty of places are down to one lane) the road is surprisingly comfortable to drive.

A trip to Wairoa always felt like a somewhat stressful experience pre-cyclone, but on Monday, without people trying to race each other, it was relatively serene.

Once you navigate the bailey bridge at Waikare and hit Kotemāori, it’s the same drive to Wairoa that it’s always been.

The newish stretch of road that crosses the Matarahou River was also unaffected by the cyclone, and it’ll show Waka Kotahi the way forward in terms of resilience on State Highway 2.

Diving through a deep winding river gorge is what used to be required (and it was arduous) until the Government invested in resilience more than a decade ago.

The plan in the coming years is to bypass Putorino entirely and build a viaduct over Waikare Gorge.

The Waikare River Bridge near Putorino collapsed in wild floodwaters caused by Cyclone Gabrielle. Photo / Rosie Tong

The sorry state of the gorge’s severed concrete bridge, with debris still twisted into it, is a sobering experience as you cross its replacement bailey bridge at 10km/h. The bypass is the only option.

A similar bypass or flyover may also be needed at Devil’s Elbow, but it will take money and political will to get it across the line.

Right now, it requires a wait at a temporary traffic light.

There are about a dozen lights and stop-go controls in total on the road, but low levels of traffic make them a minor inconvenience. On the morning run, I’m in Wairoa in two and a half hours.

Once I’m in Wairoa the big question is on everyone’s lips is: ‘how’s the road? Can I drive it?’

Yes, you can. The road that gives Northern Hawke’s Bay its biggest lifeline to the world is open. You should use it. Make sure you thank the roadworkers manning it as you do.