Snow falls and persistent rain continued to cause problems on the South's state highways yesterday.
Cars and trucks were stranded on the Northern Motorway yesterday morning and a large slip south of Hawkesbury Village, near Karitane blocked both lanes of State Highway 1 yesterday afternoon.
Traffic had to detour along the Coast Rd for several hours.
However, New Zealand Transport Agency Otago Southland operations manager Roger Bailey said the road was reopened about 6pm. The slip was about 50m long and up to 3m deep at the edge of the road, he said.
''A significant part of the hill has slipped across State Highway 1.
''We've managed to remove some of the slip material off the road and take it away so that heavy traffic can get through,'' Mr Bailey said.
''We understand it could still be moving, so we're going to monitor it during the night. If it does move slowly, we'll try to move it and keep traffic moving.''
Work would begin on a more permanent clean-up today, he said.
