There may finally be a road of sorts into Tokomaru Bay - but many locals still aren't able to travel on it.
A month after Cyclone Gabrielle struck, convoys of vehicles are making missions to the previously cut-off community but it is a somewhat treacherous journey.
Slips as far as the eye can see and scaring vast pine forests along an isolated route - access, or lack of it, is all anyone's talking about.
"Access to the coast and the back roads. Got to drive the back roads to town and that. Just all the road closures," digger operator Jordi Henstock told Newshub.
It's the first time road access has been available this far north since the cyclone hit a month ago.
Henstock said he is putting in a mammoth amount of hours to help people get through.
"Aw, 12 hours a day - 12 odd hours a day, something like that," Henstock said.
It's not exactly a six-lane highway, not even two but it's a way through. A billion bumps in the road later and Newshub made it to Tokomaru Bay.
When Newshub arrived we asked locals how they were coping after the cyclone.
"I live in a big house, up on the hill, by myself and I just cope with things that come along," Tokomaru Bay resident Ruth Paerata told Newshub.
The road inland is simply not passable for those who don't have the right vehicle or the stomach for it.
"We can't take it, well a few can but the majority can't take it," Paerata said.
A month on and it's clear some in Tokomaru Bay are close to their wit's end.
"They're really sort of over being isolated and just want to get out there really," Tokomaru Bay Four Square employee Annea Tichborne told Newshub.
She said Tokomaru Bay needed better roads, resources and some understanding.
"The Hikuwai Bridge, that's our main problem. We have demanding people, but you know, they've just got to realise that we're all human," Tichborne said.
Access to the south still isn't possible, as the road north of Tokomaru Bay which was the old highway was smashed to pieces.
A new road is being constructed above the battered highway - a welcome sight for this isolated east coast community.
