Taranaki family's car stuck in slip on State Highway 3 during dash to see dying relative

A Taranaki family's car was caught in a massive slip on State Highway 3. Photo / Supplied

By Robin Martin of RNZ

A Taranaki family making a last-minute dash to see a dying relative say they are lucky to be alive after their car was caught in a massive slip near Urenui on State Highway 3.

Rex Wade was driving his two daughters and a brother-in-law back to New Plymouth in an effort for the girls to see their Nan one last time when the slip appeared out of nowhere at about 10.30pm on Monday.

"It was pretty out the gate. We were just cruising back from Auckland and come by Urenui and it was like torrential rain and come to a little slight bend and all of a sudden the road ended and there was a big slip and we went driving into it and sunk in.

"It was pretty out of it, it was a pretty big slip."

The huge slip meant the family did not get back in time to visit his partner's mum before she died.

"Yeah, there's a lot going on today. We were travelling back from Auckland with one of her sons and we just got to Urenui and that happened and unfortunately we didn't make it back here [to New Plymouth in time] she had already passed away.

"Her son was hoping to see her before she died and not even, we didn't make it 'cause we ended up in that slip."

Wade, who was a caregiver, said he was only driving about 60 to 70 kilometres an hour because of the heavy rain, which probably saved him and his passengers from injury.

"We were just lucky it was all just dirt and wood where we hit instead of big trees. I'm telling you if we were going 100km/h or something we probably would've got seriously injured or even dead."

His car was buried up to its wheel rims, but another vehicle had taken a direct hit and was pretty banged up.

"The slip must have just stopped because there was another car on top of the hill. He had broken ... all the front of his car was damaged and the back windows too I think."

Wade said no one in either vehicle was hurt in the 10m-long and 5m-high slip which covered both lanes of the highway.

"They got out. They were all good. No one was injured just their car was wrecked. We were all freaking out, but we just got out and ran up the road to wave down any other cars in case they hit mine.

"We just got out of there in case there was any more coming down because it looked pretty big and we couldn't really see because it was dark. There was a lot of debris on the road."

Wade said when he stepped out of his vehicle he sank in up to his knees and there was water gushing everywhere.

His daughter Shakira was shaken up.

"I was asleep in the back of the car because its a big journey and out of nowhere I woke up from the bang because we'd crashed and I looked at my sister and she said 'we just crashed' and I was so confused. And we got told to get out of the car because it was a little bit smokey and I started panicking."

Shakira was also upset they had to wait a long time for a ride into New Plymouth and did not make it back in time to see her grandmother before she passed away.

"There was four of us and we were coming back from Auckland to see ... and then found out our Nan had died."

A four-wheel-drive vehicle towed Wade's car out of the slip last night, but they were unable to drive it away in the dark. He has since retrieved it.

Waka Kotahi opened State Highway 3 to one lane at 4am and warned drivers to expect delays while the slip was being cleared.