Video: How do we get through this? Mind-blowing footage shows massive boulder-strewn quake slip workers are tackling head-on

A large land slip, which looks like a mountain has fallen onto its side, on Awatere Valley Road in Marlborough is proving to be a far tougher task than first thought.

The 100km-long road connects coastal Marlborough to Molesworth, New Zealand's largest high-country station, and on to Hanmer Springs.

The slip, which was formed after the magnitude 7.8 Kaikoura earthquake on November 14, is so unstable it's described as a dangerous site to work

With something like this where do you even start? These guys on the 100km Marlborough to Molesworth road are giving it a good go.
Source: 1 NEWS

Nine families remain isolated by the slip, though their properties can be accessed through Hanmer Springs.

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Marlborough Civil Defence continues to provide supplies to these remote farms by helicopter each week.

For the first three weeks, contractors and diggers have been removing unstable rocks by either "sluicing" them with monsoon buckets from helicopters, or blasting them with dynamite using abseilers.

Last Friday, workers got the site stable enough to start excavating with a remote-controlled digger.

By last night, contractors we were able to get three quarters of the way across the slip.

However, crews had to pull back after loose material began falling from above.

"We called in helicopters to sluice again, which uncovered four huge boulders that were in a very dangerous position," Marlborough Roads' Steve Murrin told Scoop.co.nz.

"We managed to dislodge two of these, but the other two are proving very difficult to move. They each weigh in excess of 15 tonnes."

A Marlborough Roads geotechnical engineer, who worked in Christchurch on the Port Hills and Sumner rock falls, says the slip is the most technically challenging he has seen.

"It's hard to put a time-frame on when we will have the Awatere Valley Road open."

https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/video-do-we-get-through-mind-blowing-footage-shows-massive-boulder-strewn-quake-slip-workers-tackling-head