Raetihi farmers are bracing for hundreds of thousands of dollars in extra cost, as a result of a major slip cutting off access to State Highway 4.
Parapara Road, a key link between Whanganui and Raetihi, has been blocked for most of this month - and farmers are ready to take matters into their own hands if NZTA doesn't move fast enough.
Farmer have made a shortcut through farmland to skirt around the mega slip.
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The DIY detour is proving so effective that farmers are considering metalling the path.
It's a work-around while NZTA comes up with a better plan, something they fear could take years.
"The Government needs to have a look and not worry about red tape - get on and do the job," says Rex Marin, who has been farming in the area for 16 years.
The slip is in his backyard, and now chunks of a once - busy highway decorate the hillside.
And a usually gushing river is working hard to break through the mountain of earth that cascaded down into it.
The slip is actually one council had been monitoring. They'd been watching it for more than a year, but now all eyes are firmly trained on the monster slip - which appeared out of nowhere over the course of a week.
"I just thought the road was gonna go, Jesus, this is gonna be major," says Marin.
And the financial impact is just as major and just as sudden.
Farmers are forecasting hundreds of thousands of dollars in extra cost on their farms, for this year alone, while the local forestry company is losing up to $3000 in trucking costs daily.
But there are also serious concerns for motorists' safety, with the detour road already struggling to cope with the increased traffic.
"A few of the locals already had minor accidents on there from people not knowing the road," says farmer Bevan Proffit.
While Parapara Road, which is usually driven by 2000 vehicles daily, is eerily empty.
"It was flat out, and now the goat and peacocks and turkeys have moved in," says farm manager Sheldon O'Hagan.
And as long as they are the main traffic on this key New Zealand highway, it's locals who will be footing the bill.
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