A Southland farming family face a stressful wait with their much-loved Manapouri holiday home, now under a dangerous building notice, perched on the edge of a large landslide which has closed the main street accessing Manapouri’s Pearl Harbour.

Authorities have been at the site assessing safety and trying to mitigate the problem since being alerted after the slip occurred yesterday afternoon.

Waiau Street was closed after the landslide, restricting access to the main wharf area.

With another even more significant dump of rain on its way for Manapouri and Fiordland, along with strong northwest gales, MetService is warning of more potential slips and flooding in the area.

Forecaster Heath Gullery says another front will hit from tomorrow night (Wednesday) and last into early afternoon Thursday, dumping between 150mm and 200mm of rain on Fiordland and about 100mm of rain on Manapouri township.

“This will be significant heavy rain and with the combination of heavy rain and northwest winds we’re expecting localised flooding and slips,” Gullery says.

That’s prolonging what’s already been a difficult wait for the Blair-Edie family, of Birchwood Station near Ohai in Southland.

Owner Steve Blair-Edie says fortunately the house hasn’t moved at all and the Southland District Council has been “fantastic” in supporting them, even offering counselling if they had wanted it.

The council dangerous building notice placed on the property means nobody can enter the home, which has been a family holiday escape for almost 32 years.

Blair-Edie, who was alerted by mates in Manapouri straight after the slip occurred (Monday, 20 October), says he rushed to Manapouri as soon as possible.

“I arrived at the same time as everybody else.”

They’re hoping they can get some retaining support for the bank under the front of the house, he says.

It’s a real blow with Labour Weekend and the summer holidays approaching.

“It’s not good,” he says, of the situation.

“The original house was built way back and we’ve refabricated it over the years. It’s now double the size it was.”

The latest renovations are thought to have only been completed recently.

Blair-Edie says Real Journeys, which has its tourist boat operation and wharf just beneath the house at Pearl Harbour, pumped all of its fuel out from where it’s stored below the slip.

Southland District Council strategic communications and engagement manager Louise Pagan says the containers, containing concrete, are being put at the bottom of the bank to mitigate risk to the buildings.

“Bulk fuel has been removed, and the fuel tank, bunding and residual fuel are secured in consultation with RD Petroleum, Environment Southland, and us,” Pagan says.

“Council has cleared up the slip at the bottom and is working with the house owner on any mitigation that can happen, but it will not be a fast solution,” she says.

The council doesn’t believe any other homes in the area are at any risk.

“A previous consent stated the site is not subject to any known natural hazards,” she says.

The council is also looking into whether the house and garage are fully consented, she says.

RealNZ chief tourism officer Hannah Ballantyne says staff witnessed the landslide come down above Pearl Harbour yesterday afternoon due to the heavy rain and “escalated immediately” to their operations and asset leaders.

“As a precaution, our team at the RealNZ Manapouri Visitor Centre and the Waiau St café were evacuated and the building closed to all personnel – with everyone safe and accounted for.”

She says they have safe access to the wharf area and at this stage RealNZ operations continue with minimal disruption.

“Our guests are checking in directly on the vessels.”

Access has been isolated or restricted to certain areas in consultation with the District Council and Geotech professionals, including to the Visitor Centre and café building, to ensure the safety of guests and RealNZ staff, she says.

“Temporary protection measures have been in place today enabling normal access to our sites.”

Parts of the RealNZ carpark area will remain isolated until the landslide area can be stabilised.

The Southland District Council is investigating the site with experts,

Environment Southland compliance manager Donna Ferguson says there is “currently no natural hazards comment” on the property from Environment Southland.

“However, this isn’t uncommon for the age of the house.”

Emergency Management Southland’s on-duty officer alerted the Environment Southland compliance officer to the slip last night.

“The fuel storage facilities are managed by RealNZ and their team has done a great job of managing that risk by removing as much fuel as they can,” Ferguson says.

“We’ll continue to support RealNZ and the Southland District Council on this situation.”

A spokesperson for Meridian, which uses the wharf to access its boats to and from the hydro station, says the slip has had no impact on their operations.

Sue Fea is a senior journalist with more than 40-years experience covering police, social and general news in the southern regions.