The November 14th earthquake isolated Kaikoura. The only way in or out has been by air or sea. Listen to November 15th 2016. Workers have been busy trying to clear the slips which have closed the roads but it has been a huge job. In the last couple of weeks, the inland road became available for some people to drive out to Christchurch and for some supplies to come in. However, that road was only open for a few hours each day, one way in the morning and the other direction in the afternoon. It is not a main road and is not in good condition. Now, work has been done on that road and it will be open from next week. Parts of it will be one way only. Drivers can expect it will take a long time – maybe 5 hours or more. Before the earthquake, the trip from Christchurch to Kaikoura took 21/2 hours and the inland route via Waiau took 4 hours.
In the weekend, Prime Minister Bill English and earthquake recovery minister, Gerry Brownlee visited Kaikoura by airforce helicopter. Residents expressed their frustration about the slow recovery. They wanted to know why everything is taking so long to fix. The road north out of Kaikoura will be closed for some time because the bridge over the Conway River, just 30 minutes north of Kaikoura, is broken.
Kaikoura is a tourist town. Tourists come for whale watching or to see seals or swim with dolphins. It is good for fishing too. If tourists cannot visit, people in the town will lose money.
Vocabulary
isolated (v, adj) – to be alone
slips (n) – land slides
huge (adj) – very, very big
recovery (n) – getting better, back to normal, back to what it was like before
expressed (v) – gave their opinions and their feelings
frustrated (adj) – a feeling of unhappiness or anger because not enough is happening