Timaru family stuck minutes from home for 2.5 hours due to flood

The Timaru family stuck in their car seven minutes from home for two and a half hours. Alistair Bradley, left, Caitlin Bradley, 16, Alysha Bradley, 12, Nicole Bradley, 8, and Sheryl Bradley. Photo / Supplied

Stuck in the car about 7 minutes' drive from home for two and a half hours because of bad flooding, a Timaru family of five occupied themselves by looking out the window.

A state of emergency has been declared in the town as severe downpours, which have affected the area all afternoon, continue.

With road closures and terrible traffic adding to the delay Sheryl Bradley, her husband Alistair and their three children considered pulling over and walking home, but their eldest daughter didn't have a jacket.

"It's still a fair bit of a walk and the weather was pretty horrendous. It was getting darker as well. We thought 'we'll just carry on at a snail's pace and try to get home'," Bradley said.

The family were returning from Christchurch where they'd spent time celebrating Alistair's birthday and visiting family and friends.

"It's been a very eventful day," she told the Herald.

"In Christchurch it wasn't even raining when we left. It was quite incredible as we got further down the road how much it changed, quite dramatically.

"The weather just got progressively worse and worse from Dunsandel. I've never seen water like that between Christchurch and Timaru. Some of it was knee-deep that you were driving through. Very slow going, especially with lots of trucks on the road."

Friends were messaging them saying the roads into Timaru were being shut.

"We thought 'oh god' but you kind of just keep going. The closer we got to Timaru the weather just got worse, the traffic got heavier. They were starting to shut the roads in Timaru."

While driving through Dunsandel, Bradley said, she feared they may not be able to turn around if they needed to because of the traffic and flooding.

"I think we were anxious to get home, thinking 'oh gosh where would we stop if the road was closed immediately in front of us' thinking 'what would we do'."

The journey took five hours in total, but two and a half of those were spent stuck in traffic in Washdyke near the Timaru racecourse, just minutes from their home

"Nature kept us entertained, looking out the window and seeing what was going on."

Although the road was prone to flooding, Bradley said she'd never seen it that bad in the 20 years she'd lived in Timaru.

The family arrived home about 6.30pm. Bradley said they would make a quick trip to the dairy for supplies before spending the rest of the night inside.