This new pending slip has the potential to block the only current road access to Kawakawa Bay. Photo / Doug Halligan
Engineers are monitoring another slip that could cut off the sole road to Kawakawa Bay, meaning residents would be able to leave the area only by boat or plane.
The Clevedon-Kawakawa Bay Road southeast of Auckland has been closed since August 25 with residents having to travel an
extra 100km around the coast to get to the Manukau and Auckland City areas or catch a free ferry set up by the council to Pine Harbour.
But another slip on the other side of the bay on East Coast Rd north of Kaiaua is threatening to close the lengthy alternative route.
Franklin District Council spokesman Ken Dyer said engineers had assessed the slip yesterday and would keep an eye on it over the next few weeks.
He said there were "one or two" slips a year along the road.
"We constantly monitor that coast. It's quite an exposed area and there are reasonably regular slips on it.
"It's not like the Kawakawa Bay one where you've got a whole mountain ready to come down. They are slips that come down and block the road but you're able to bulldozer them.
"We are not aware of anything that's imminent. But you can never say never with this weather."
Meanwhile, the Manukau City Council is continuing to monitor a slip on Clovelly Rd in Bucklands Beach which forced residents from six properties on top of a cliff, including former mayor Sir Barry Curtis, to be evacuated last week.
The council is warning people to avoid the Eastern Beach foreshore at the bottom of the cliff because of cracked rock at the base which is under pressure from the movement of the subsiding land above.
"The evacuation of residents has not been done lightly and our warnings to stay away are made in the knowledge that this cliff-side will fall," said economic director Rick Walden.
Parts of Sir Barry's backyard have slumped about 2m. Some trees have fallen partway down the cliff and one has plunged to the foreshore.
Security guards are posted at the site to warn of the danger.
