Houses in Opua have been left hanging by a slip. Photo / Brett Phibbs
Houses in Opua have been left hanging by a slip. Photo / Brett Phibbs
KEY POINTS:
Builder Michael Kriz and his partner Renata have their valuable Opua property on the market.
But on Thursday, torrential rain caused a huge slip that left the Broadview Rd home perched beside a huge slip that took away more than half the couple's land.
A cliff-face of mud,dirt, manuka and trees drops 40m beside an uprooted retaining wall, toppled trellis and a partly exposed septic tank torn from the ground.
Mr Kriz is not sure about repairs. "I don't know whether I could trust repairs. That's for the engineers to look at. The insurance might think the house is a write-off."
The property is on the market for $730,000.
Mr Kriz believes one more downpour could dump the house into the valley below.
A few kilometres away at the multimillion-dollar Haruru Falls Resort, co-owner Jan Berritsen-Molloy can't put an estimate on the damage done to the resort she and her partner own.
"I just don't know. I'm still waiting for insurance assessors," she said yesterday as a team of staff and workers toiled to remove furniture, chairs and carpets from flooded units to dry in the sun.
The Far North District Council says there is still a chance that the resort may be further damaged.
There is concern that one area of the slip above the motel is still unstable.
