Mangamuka is known as the gateway to the Far North.
All travellers heading to Cape Reinga on State Highway 1 have to go through the small, rural settlement with a population of just over 500 and then up through the Mangamuka Gorge.
But it's a gateway that's been closed almost more often than it's been open in the past three years.
In 2020, the gorge suffered a one-in-500-year deluge causing it to close for a year. But severe weather events over the next few years resulted in repeated intermittent closures.
Stoic locals put up with being cut off.
"There was hope. There was hope because it was able to be fixed again," said Patience Wiremu.
And it was fixed, reopening in November last year. But within weeks, multiple slips caused by the January storms closed the road again.
Once again locals were stranded. To access essential services in Kaitaia, like hospital treatment, banks or mahi, they have to make a two-hour detour on SH10 or risk sharing winding, unsealed forestry roads with huge logging trucks.
This time - left with no timeline about when they could expect it to re-open - residents feared it would never happen.
"To them it's a game, to us it's our lives and no one is telling us, 'It's going to be fixed in, like, two months', or whatever. It was just, 'We don't know'."
Henare Tautari, 45, was diagnosed three years ago with type 2 diabetes. He travels to Kaitaia Hospital three times a week for dialysis.
His trip on the old forestry road now takes three times as long.
"I just do it for myself to be. Get my health. I don't mind how long it takes. We've just gotten used to it now."
But he added: "It only takes, like, 25 minutes to get across the gorge into Kaitaia. It's just the hassle of having to go right around. It is a long way."
The closures affect not only those who live in Mangamuka but also the wider Far North community.
Maryanne Bedggood is a kaiako at the kura kaupapa o Te Rangi Āniwaniwa in Kaitaia. She commuted daily to her mahi from Horeke where she moved to be closer to her elderly parents.
But she said the closure of the gorge has turned her world upside down.
"I am at the end of my wick."
Worn out by spending five hours a day travelling on the detour roads, she's made the difficult decision to move temporarily into Kaitaia during the week.
Patience Wiremu said the closures also create a financial toll that's crippling whānau.
"Just for a trip to the town, it's like $180. That's a full tank of gas for us. And then on our way back, we're having to put more gas in. It's horrible. Electricians, plumbers are not willing to travel this far to do work. It's a big strain."
But Waka Kotahi's Far North state highway resilience programme project director Norman Collier said help is on the way. He told The Hui presenter Julian Wilcox the road through Mangamuka Gorge will re-open in May 2024.
Collier said the work has been technically challenging because a lot of the failures in the road were weaknesses in rain-sodden earth many metres below the road surface. Crews had to drill 20 metres into the earth at 16 separate sites along the gorge to ensure this fix is long-lasting.
Collier said the $100 million repair will "build back better".
Waka Kotahi is planning to meet with the community this week to answer questions and to outline the timeline for re-opening.
Far North District Mayor Moko Tepania criticises the Government's road funding priorities which he said favours schemes with public transport.
"Public transport doesn't exist here in the Far North."
Tepania wants money to be set aside solely to pay for upgrades to roads in rural Aotearoa New Zealand so those living there had guaranteed access to funding.
Made with support from New Zealand On Air and Te Māngai Pāho
