Peter de Graaf

Far North residents are in for the best Christmas present they could have hoped for with State Highway 1 through the Mangamuka Gorge due to reopen on 20 December.

The vital section of highway, south of Kaitāia, has been closed since a storm in August 2022 triggered dozens of destructive slips.

The slip-prone, 13km-long section of highway had only been open for a year after a previous closure for storm repairs.

The closure has forced Mangamuka residents to take a long detour around the west coast to get to Kaitāia, their main service town as well as a centre for jobs and schooling.

The long-awaited reopening date was announced today by Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Northland MP Grant McCallum.

The news that the road would be open in time for Christmas was cause for celebration, McCallum said

It also meant Northland would be able to take full advantage of the influx of summer visitors.

He also encouraged other New Zealanders to seize the chance and see what Northland had to offer.

"Northlanders have been incredibly patient as work has progressed. I want to recognise them and the many workers who put in over 530,000 hours on site to get this essential project done," he said.

The closure of the highway turned the settlement of Mangamuka - once a busy pit stop on the road to Kaitāia - into a virtual ghost town on a dead-end road.

It also threatened the survival of Mangamuka Dairy, the town's only shop and a vital social hub.

The $100-million-plus project to rebuild the road was initially due to have been completed in May 2024, but another big storm in 2023 increased the number of slips from 26 to 38.

The damage caused by the August 2022 deluge was so severe there were fears the gorge would never reopen, as was the fate of some Northland roads after Cyclone Bola in 1988.

This article was originally published by RNZ