Martinborough cut off again as South Wairarapa bridges close in another winter storm

Martinborough and large parts of South Wairarapa were cut off again on Saturday as rising rivers forced the closure of the bridges that link the wine village to the rest of the region, the latest in a run of storms that has left the small town repeatedly isolated through the winter of 2026.

All three main bridges into Martinborough closed as heavy rain pushed the Ruamahanga and its tributaries back over their banks. The Waihenga Bridge on State Highway 53, the Ponatahi Bridge and the Lower Valley Bridge were all shut at various points over the week, leaving a winding rural route through Longbush north of the town as the only reliable way in and out. A trip between Martinborough and Greytown that normally takes about 15 minutes stretched out to 40 minutes or more for anyone who could get through at all.

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MetService kept an orange heavy rain warning in place for the Tararua Range, Wairarapa south of Masterton and the Wellington region, with forecasters warning of another 80 to 110 millimetres of rain on already saturated ground before the system eased. Powerco reported an unplanned outage affecting more than 600 properties along the Wairarapa south coast as wind and water brought down lines.

For a district that has now weathered several major rain events since February, the pattern has become wearily familiar. The ground has had no chance to dry out between storms, so each new downpour runs straight off the hills and into rivers that are already high. South Wairarapa mayor Dame Fran Wilde told RNZ the community had already been through two events in quick succession and the ground was saturated, leaving little margin before the rivers rose again.

Deputy mayor Rob Taylor said the closures were far more than an inconvenience. When the bridges go down, farmers cannot get stock or produce to market, children cannot get to school, and emergency helicopters face a harder task reaching Wellington or Masterton hospitals. He described the cost to the district as running into the hundreds of thousands of dollars each time the town is sealed off.

Part of the problem is that the crossings were already weakened. Spillway damage from flooding in late June lowered the level at which the Waihenga Bridge has to be closed, so it now shuts sooner and stays shut longer than it used to. The repair timeframe has not been confirmed, which means the town is more exposed with every fresh band of rain that crosses the ranges. The Turanganui Bridge further south has washed out twice already this year, a reminder of how quickly the region’s ageing river infrastructure can fail.

The businesses that make Martinborough a weekend destination have taken the hardest hit. The town lives on visitors who drive over the hill from Wellington for its vineyards, cafes and long lunches, and when the roads close those visitors simply cancel. Phillip McArthur, who owns Moy Hall winery, said the flooding stopped his business in its tracks and called the situation pretty scary given how weak trading had already been. He said bookings at the winery were down about 60 percent on the same time last year.

At the Martinborough Hotel, owner Tim Smith counted 18 guest nights cancelled by mid morning on one day alone, a loss he put at around 6000 dollars, and told RNZ he was looking forward to having a new bridge and a firm commitment from someone to build it. Kate Kerr from Discover Wairarapa said she had been fielding calls from worried travellers, with a run of properties across Martinborough and Greytown fully booked over the Matariki weekend and guests unsure whether they would even be able to reach them.

The wider central and southern North Island has been hammered by the same weather. In northern Hawke’s Bay, up to 130 millimetres of rain was forecast to fall over 20 hours in the ranges, and further north the town of Wairoa was placed under a state of emergency after river banks burst and dozens of people were evacuated overnight. More than a dozen homes were flooded there and around 150 properties lost power. Strong winds added to the misery, with gusts of up to 120 kilometres an hour forecast for Taranaki and the Marlborough Sounds.

The upper South Island has fared no better. State Highway 1 was closed between Cheviot and Kaikōura after slips and flooding tore into the road, and the Kaikōura District Council warned of an ongoing landslide risk as the ground gave way. A motel manager in Kaikōura described floodwaters hitting his units like a tidal wave, and one family living between Cheviot and Kaikōura said the Conway River had reached the highest level in their living memory. In the Hutt Valley, about four metres of soil slid onto the forecourt of a service station, a stark illustration of how saturated the hills have become.

For South Wairarapa, the immediate concern is getting people and supplies moving again once the rivers drop. The longer question is what happens next winter, and the one after that. Residents and business owners have made clear they want a durable fix rather than another temporary reopening, and the repeated calls for a new bridge suggest patience with the status quo is running thin. Until the crossings are made more resilient, every heavy band of rain that rolls in off the Tararua Range carries the same threat of another town cut off from the outside world.

For now, locals are watching the river gauges and the forecast, and getting used to the long detour through Longbush. You can read RNZ’s coverage of the closures here.

Have you been caught out by the road closures in South Wairarapa, or do you live in a town that keeps getting cut off by bad weather? Share your experience in the comments below.

This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂