A Waihī Beach mum has described several “extremely stressful” hours “trapped” with her sick daughter in gridlocked Tauranga traffic, fearing their electric vehicle would run out of charge.  

She is among commuters and local organisations trying to adjust to “horrific” ongoing delays on State Highway 2 through and north of Tauranga.  

A college has changed its timetable to stop travelling students missing learning time and a health authority says more patients are late for appointments while one Katikati resident finds it faster to commute to Auckland for work than Tauranga.  

It comes after other angry SH2 motorists lashed out a week ago, and as the Government prepares to confirm transport priorities relating to an under-construction alternative highway route.  

NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi thanked motorists for their patience with the significant delays and said people should continue to plan journeys as SH2 works and maintenance continue in to March. 

More than 6000 vehicles per day had been added to the Waihī to Tauranga corridor in the past decade. 

’Trapped’ in an electric car 

Waihī Beach resident Kasteel Craw said she spent hours “trapped” in her electric car last week taking her daughter to and from a pediatric appointment. 

“It was extremely stressful for both of us.” 

Waihī Beach resident Kasteel Craw (pictured) and her daughter, Frankie-Lee Craw (inset), were stuck in traffic for hours on State Highway 2 afraid their electric car would run out of charge. Photo / Alex Cairns 

She said she did not have time to charge the car before the roughly 54km trip to Tauranga, which took two hours. But the commute home was almost twice that. 

They left the hospital at 3.03pm and stopped for five minutes at Fraser Cove. By the time they crawled across town to Bethlehem, it was 6.30pm and a panicked Craw stopped to recharge before continuing home. 

“It was horrible, I’m usually really calm but I was worried the car was going to break down.” 

To make matters worse her daughter – who suffers from cystic fibrosis, diabetes and celiac disease – had her blood sugar levels drop. 

Waihī Beach resident Kasteel Craw says she has to travel to Tauranga for her daughter's health appointments. Photo / Alex Cairns 

“Lucky we had packed a couple of supplies on this occasion otherwise we would have been in serious trouble. I might have had to call an ambulance as she just passes out. 

She said her daughter had many health appointments in Tauranga and doing them remotely was usually not an option. 

“It is extremely concerning.” 

Patients miss appointments 

Andrew Wilson from Wilson Osteopathy said it lost about a quarter of its osteopathic clinic patients last Friday due to traffic. 

In his opinion, Tauranga had been badly let down by politicians, Waka Kotahi and councils. 

“The problems are ongoing. It’s very difficult to run a service business in downtown Tauranga.” 

Te Whatu Ora - Health NZ acting group director of operations Sarah Mitchell said anecdotally it had more patients calling in late due to SH2 traffic, with an average of one to five calls a week. 

There have been major traffic delays on State Highway 2 which are expected to continue until at least next month. Photo / Alex Cairns 

Regular patients in Tauranga were factoring an extra one to two hours for travel to be on time. 

Where possible, late patients were still seen, but some had to be rescheduled, she said. 

If it was aware of traffic delays, staff notified patients via social media. 

College changes timetable 

Otūmoetai College principal Russell Gordon said it pushed its first teaching class out 20 minutes after Ōmokoroa parents raised concerns about traffic last year. 

“We recognised that was having an impact on their learning because kids would come late period one, then they would go to form time …” 

Ōtūmoetai College principal Russell Gordon. Photo/ Supplied 

Gordon said now form time was the first class. 

Hamish Murray travelled from Ōmokoroa to Tauranga daily and said he had seen “gridlock almost all the way back to the city” sometimes. 

He believed there was a serious disconnect between the roading contractors, traffic management companies, NZTA and the community. 

In his view, “the interests of the community/taxpayer are not considered at all”. 

Kids stuck on bus for hours 

Two Ōmokoroa parents told the Bay of Plenty Times their children took at least three hours to bus home from school last Friday, a journey of about 20km. 

Sandra Easton said it would be fine if the delays were infrequent. 

“Unfortunately with ongoing roadworks … it’s looking like it could become the norm.” 

Uzabus was approached for comment. 

Auckland faster than Tauranga - Katikati commuter 

An Aucklander who moved to Katikati was disappointed to find she had not left the traffic behind. 

She commuted three days a week to Auckland which took two hours, “less time than to Tauranga currently”. 

A Katikati motorist said she was “absolutely disgusted” it took over two hours to travel to Tauranga on Friday. 

“It’s horrific … [you’re] hardly doing 10km/h and a lot of the time stopped. Then when I got to Bethlehem and saw the traffic built up from the city and the Mount going north – wow that was just horrendous.” 

She said the problem was there was no alternative route. 

Takitimu North Link will help - MP, NZTA 

Bay of Plenty MP Tom Rutherford said he had received reassurance NZTA was working as quickly as possible to finish its works. 

The under-construction Takitimu North Link stage one, Tauranga to Te Puna, would help ease SH2 demands and stage two would create more reliable travel times for locals and freight. 

Bay of Plenty MP Tom Rutherford. Photo / Alex Cairns 

Western Bay mayor James Denyer said the highway was at capacity but solutions to the problem were in progress. 

He acknowledged motorist frustration and said he raised issues with NZTA, including why it started chip sealing on the first day of school. 

NZTA regional manager of maintenance and operations for Waikato and Bay of Plenty Roger Brady said poor weather delayed the holiday chip sealing programme, spilling in to the school term. 

The cumulative effect of multiple programmes of work was being monitored at a regional network level but, at times, “this is extremely challenging to get right”. 

Work was being done at night wherever possible, however it was still disruptive as vehicles crawled through the fresh chip the next day, he said. 

A section of Moffat Rd, Bethlehem closed due to works on the Takitimu North Link. Photo / Alex Cairns 

Stage one construction of Takitimu North Link was expected to be finished in 2027 and would make a big difference. He said traffic would reduce on the SH2 corridor, which will become a local road. 

The agency was protecting the stage two route and working with other authorities to “as much as possible, ensure growth alongside SH2 is sensible and sustainable”. 

“Stage two [Te Puna to Ōmokoroa] is not currently funded for construction.” 

Minister of Transport Simeon Brown said he was writing the draft Government Policy Statement on land transport, which would confirm priorities including regarding the Takitimu Northern Link. 

“We’ll have more to say on that shortly.” 

Carmen Hall is a news director for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post, covering business and general news. She has been a Voyager Media Awards winner and a journalist for 25 years.