Motorists ran in fear for their lives as thousands of tonnes of rock crashed over State Highway 6, near Queenstown, yesterday morning, a slip that could block the road for days.
The slip, about 30m across and at least 15m deep, fell on to the highway beneath Nevis Bluff at the western end of the Kawarau Gorge about 10am, narrowly missing motorists.
The highway - the main road access to Queenstown from Central Otago - was closed yesterday and is unlikely to open until at least Thursday.
There were fears people had been buried by the slip and a search and rescue team from Queenstown was called to the scene. However, police in Cromwell later accounted for the last vehicle seen to pass the bluff.
Police closed the highway and officers were stationed at both the Crown Range turn-off, just past Arrowtown, and at Goldfields in the Kawarau Gorge to divert traffic.
The slip was witnessed by about 15 people, many of whom got out of their vehicles to watch the rocks fall and were forced to run from the scene when huge boulders crashed on to the road.
Witnesses said the surrounding hills echoed with a loud rumble as the rocks fell. The debris tore through a fall prevention barrier and buried the road, destroying traffic barriers and sending a huge cloud of dust into the sky.
One policeman driving to the scene saw the dust cloud from 5km away.
Allister Simpson, of Queenstown, was driving towards Cromwell when he saw several small rocks fall on the the road.
He rang emergency services, then watched as several motorists risked their lives by driving beneath the bluff as larger rocks fell seconds before the main slip.
Mr Simpson said it was "a miracle" nobody was killed.
"I saw a few rocks come down and about a dozen cars kept going through, then a major fall came down and everyone just ran," Mr Simpson said.
"People were extremely lucky. It was like a big avalanche. If anyone had have been underneath it, they would have stood no chance. They would have been buried."
A group of motorcyclists heading from Queenstown to Wanaka were perhaps the luckiest of all.
Three members of the group raced out of the danger zone just seconds before the land gave way and were caught up in the dust cloud.
The group was separated by the slip, with three motorcyclists making it safely to the Cromwell side.
"They just gunned it; it looked like they were going to get caught but they just made it," Mr Simpson said.
