A bird's eye view of the Cape Kidnappers cliff collapse as it appears now

Friday, 1 February 2019

Access to Cape Kidnappers remains closed to pedestrians and vehicles while geologists continue studying the site of a cliff collapse, with no date set for the area reopening to the public.

The collapse injured two walkers, one critically, on January 23. They remain in Hawke's Bay Hospital in a stable condition.

A Hastings District Council spokeswoman said more work was needed to assess the site, and this was being carried out 'with urgency'.

The council will not make any decisions on whether or not to re-open access from Clifton beach until it receives the geologist's report, which will include potential risks in the area, she said.

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In the meantime people were instructed to stay away from the area.

The GNS landslide team was sent to the site last week to collect data.

GNS Science engineering geologist Sally Dellow said cliff collapse events in the area were relatively common.

'Smaller events occur every year. Cliff collapse events of a size similar to the 23 January event probably occur on this stretch of coastline every two to five years,' she said.

Dellow said the pile of debris at the foot of the cliff comprised 63,000 cubic metres of material.

'However that includes debris from previous cliff collapse events in the same area. We know there was a large rockfall in this area prior to 2015 and there was debris sitting on the coastline here the week before,' she said.

'This was a stress release. When you have vertical cliffs and weak materials and coastal erosion is continually removing material at the base of the cliffs. Weak cliffs,' she said.

Dellow said wave action and tide action would move the debris over time.

'We can't stop these events from happening, we have to learn how to live with them,' she said.