Plan B

What happens if we have to switch to Plan B due road closures because of extreme weather?

A significant portion of the New Zealand’s roads weave their way along beautiful coastlines and through hilly or mountainous regions, making a road trip around the country an incredibly scenic experience. In recent years however large scale weather events have occurred in different locations throughout the country, resulting in significant flooding, landslides, and bridges washing out. Any of these scenarios can cause an unexpected road closure that we can not specifically plan for in advance. Needless to say, a road or bridge closure presents a big problem for a tour because a group, their luggage, and their vehicle are stuck on one side of the road closure, while their pre booked accommodation is usually on the other side of the road closure.

In the event that a road or bridge is closed we will switch to Plan B, which will most likely involve using a helicopter to fly guests over an uncrossable bridge or section of road. Depending on where the road closure occurs, Plan B could also require that an additional vehicle needs to be chartered to deliver guests to their accommodation, while the guide relocates the trip vehicle on an alternative route (which could take up to 10 hours in some locations). The additional cost of the helicopter and vehicle charter would be divided up equally among all the guests on the trip. This is the best way to ensure the least interruption to the guest experience we provide. Depending on where a road closure occurs, the cost of implementing Plan B (a helicopter ride and a vehicle charter to the pre booked accommodation) could be in the range of NZ$300 to NZ$1,000 per person, depending on the location and the number of people in the group.

To put things in perspective New Zealand Adventure Guides has been operating our Ultimate South Island Tour since 2013 where we travel down State Highway 6 on the West Coast of the South Island, the only road on the western side of the Southern Alps. Although we have operated dozens of these tours we have never had to initiate Plan B. Admittedly, some road closures have occurred there, but we have been fortunate with our timing and have been able to avoid them.

One day our luck will run out during a tour and we will have to initiate Plan B and pass this unforeseen cost onto our guests to ensure they have the best experience possible. We do not recommend that our guests join the guide for the long drive (possibly through the night) to relocate the trip vehicle. We recommend that you have travel insurance to cover this potential expense and confirm in advance with your insurance provider that they would cover such a scenario. We hope we never have to implement Plan B on one of our trips but think it is important to let you know in advance that this scenario could happen, and how we would respond if it does.