Pothole ends morning school bus run at Waikare

Tuesday morning’s school bus run to Bay of Islands College came to an abrupt end on Waikare Valley Rd when the bus got stuck in a pothole.

It takes a pretty big pothole to stop a school bus in its tracks — but that’s exactly what happened on Waikare Valley Rd this week.

The bus was on its daily run to collect Bay of Islands College students on Tuesday when it hit a stretch of slush and deep potholes on a corner of the unsealed road.

The bus dropped into a pothole up to its front axle and wouldn’t budge.

Local residents had earlier alerted the Far North District Council to the poor state of the road, east of Kawakawa, to no avail.

When the bus got stuck residents got on their phones to alert Kōwhai (deputy mayor) Kelly Stratford, who knows the area well.

“Residents had reported the pothole, but unfortunately maintenance had not got there yet,” she said.

Stratford said she called the council’s chief executive as soon as she was alerted. By 8.30am Northland Transportation Alliance contractors were on site and had pulled the bus out, she said.

“It does highlight what everybody knows — due to the severe weather we’ve been having we’re well behind on maintenance on our roads.”

Waikare Valley resident Shirley Reti said no children were on the bus at the time, which was heading to a turning point before starting its pick-ups.

There had been problems with the road for months and she had lodged “requests for service” regularly for a fortnight but nothing was done, she said.

“A digger has been out a few times and graded over it but it just goes straight back to its ugly self. The water’s got nowhere to go, so it goes across the road and creates mush.”

"Sorry kids, school's off today." This bus run to Bay of Islands College came to an abrupt end in a Waikare Valley Rd pothole.

Reti gave Stratford credit for responding straight away and ensuring the bus had been towed out of the pothole. Contractors arrived on Wednesday morning to carry out road repairs.

After seeing the stuck bus she made a point of stopping any time she saw students waiting for their morning ride to warn them it could be a while.

Waikare Valley Rd had been reduced to one lane by drop-outs in many places during the rain of recent months.

“You have to admit, the land’s on the move. But we’re not getting the attention we need.”

Stratford also notified Northland’s Regional Transport Committee about the bus incident, which coincidentally was due to meet just hours later.

She urged people to follow up complaints about poor road conditions if they weren’t resolved.

“If anyone has reported a pothole or other roading issues, and it’s been longer than a week, they need to follow up. And if they do that a couple of times and still nothing has happened, then they can contact me,” she said.

The potholed stretch of road was repaired the following morning. Photo / Shirley Reti