Raetihi business owners and locals are determined to keep their town on the map despite the impact of the State Highway 4 closure. Photo / Bevan Conley
Raetihi business owners and locals are determined to keep their town on the map despite the impact of the State Highway 4 closure. Photo / Bevan Conley
Several Raetihi businesses are keeping a positive outlook despite the massive slip blocking the main road that leads to the Ruapehu town.
The NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) told Raetihi locals at meetings in the town on Thursday that getting State Highway 4 back to one lane is a priority.
RaetihiPromotions Charitable Trust chairman and Angel Louise Café operator Gary Griffin-Chappel said he's working with the hand that's been dealt.
"It's not going to be a quick fix and it's not something we can make a change on," Griffin-Chappel said.
"For me it's not about where the slip is or what's happening, it's now what can we do about it and how do we move forward and ensure we've got plans in place to help this town through this period.
"It's just looking at how we can make a positive out of this."
Angel Louise Café operator Gary Griffin-Chappel is looking at the positives. Photo / Bevan Conley
Griffin-Chappel said he's been doing extra promotion on social media to let travellers know Whanganui River Rd is a suitable detour for anyone wanting to get to Raetihi from Whanganui.
After Thursday's NZTA community meetings, Griffin-Chappel briefly met with Visit Ruapehu representatives to talk about ways to promote Raetihi.
"I think if we can get a really good marketing plan together with Visit Ruapehu, because at the moment Raetihi is quite small on their website, there'll be something positive to come out of this.
"They've agreed to come in and do photos and spiels about local business and create another website for Raetihi.
"They've agreed to do to work to create a better image, and they agree promotion of the River Road is the way to go."
A meeting between Visit Ruapehu and local businesses is planned for Monday afternoon.
The slip "couldn't have happened at a worse time" for Dinosaur House owner Ian Moore, who had only been in business for a week when the road was taken out.
"We'd had a lot of interest on social media from people in Whanganui wanting to come up for the school holidays, and we did get some people coming up but nowhere near as many as we were expecting," Moore said.
"If you're thinking of taking a carload of children up to see a museum, an hour ride is okay, but when you start talking about two hours and two hours to get back, it's a bit hard for them."
Dinosaur House owner Ian Moore had only been in business for a week before the slip happened. Photo / Bevan Conley
Moore, who has lived at his business location for the last seven years, said he's also noticed a big decrease in the number of campervans driving through town.
Despite a difficult start to business, Moore is still positive and said he's targeting areas north of Raetihi earlier than expected in the hope of an increase of visitors through the door.
"We know we need to step it up a bit more because the casual people who we hoped would come are probably bypassing the town completely now."
Raetihi Holiday Park operator Rebecca Mead is prepared for a few hard years of work, or however long it takes NZTA to reopen the road or come up with a solution.
"We are going to make a positive out of it but it's still going to be hard work for us," she said.
"It's easy for people to stop into cafes for coffee for things like that, but it's a little bit harder to convince them to stay a night if they weren't already planning to.
"We're just used to people driving past and stopping, either being tired from the long drive from Auckland or Wellington, and now they have to physically divert where they're coming from.
"It's just a different type of customer for us."
Raetihi Holiday Park operator Rebecca Mead says there's lot of hard work ahead for business operators. Photo / Bevan Conley
When Mead took over the business in 2011 around 90 guests would stay every month; it has since increased to around 1300 guests per month.
Mead said as soon as she saw the first sign of the road was cracking she knew it would be an issue.
"I drove over it about a week before it fell and I saw the cracks in the road and that they weren't lining up the same as other cracks in the road normally do.
"I told people that the hill was going to fall and everyone thought I was exaggerating, and then it fell.
"We knew it was quite serious. There are no other options so we knew straight away we'd have to work around everything."
The slip has caused a significant amount of extra work for Mead who has had to rework her website and contact guests with future bookings to let them know about the slip and how they'll still able to reach the holiday park.
On the street, Reece Robson and Aroha Irwin shared concerns of NZTA isolating the town by having several "road closed" signs up, when travellers could still reach Raetihi via the road the signs were placed on.
Locals Reece Robson and Aroha Irwin are concerned about the road closure signs. Photo / Bevan Conley
"We've had closures before and it gets quiet for a while but then people realise it's not closed all the way to Raetihi, but those signs aren't helping," Irwin said.
"It's detouring everyone around us, instead of drivers coming through and using River Rd," Robson said.
"There's no need for it."
At Thursday's meetings, NZTA representatives told locals the signs would be changed.
