‘No worries’: Plucky bus driver shows his mettle after slip closes road – صحيفة الصوت

With a flooded bank on one side, a steep drop on the other, and only a reverse gear to play with on a windy road, Jason Crew backed his school bus 5km to safety.

On the main road to Okains Bay on Banks Peninsula, the Akaroa Area School bus driver had little choice on Tuesday afternoon.

After two days of steady rain that all but drowned the area, Crew and school pupils were confronted with an angry welch of mud blocking their path to the seaside village – and no cellphone coverage.

“It would have been quite spectacular if it wasn’t scary,” said Crew.

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At the bottom of the road Amour-jane Ryan was waiting for her 13-year-old daughter to arrive home from school, but conditions were deteriorating fast.

Earlier that morning she had checked the main bridges into the settlement and gave Crew the thumbs up to come in, but by high tide mid-afternoon surface flooding had made entry into the Bay almost impossible.

Facing a non-passable slip and kids who were now scared as the rain scarred the landscape around them, Crew backed his bus almost to the top of the steep road before managing to turn the vehicle around.

But the canny bus driver didn’t stop there.

With two children unable to go home, he drove back to Akaroa, got in his ute and drove a similar distance back in terrible conditions to get them to a place to stay for the night.

For Ryan’s daughter it was an exciting adventure – even though she didn’t know the people she was staying with – and it showed how tight-knit the remote community is.

A number of parents, including Ryan, took to social media to thank Crew, who has become a vital cog in their school community.

For now the residents of Okains Bay remain almost cut off with all three access roads compromised by the brutal weather. Two are closed and one is down to one lane due to multiple slips.

A resident of 12 years, Ryan can’t believe how wet July has been. In the campground she temporarily manages there are no lawns and no paddocks – just water and plenty of it.

With rain continuing on Tuesday night and another high tide due around 3am, the residents expect they may be cut off for some time yet.

“It’s atrocious,” she says emphatically. “Just wet, wet, wet.”

Crew agrees, saying the hills around Akaroa look more like Milford Sound waterfalls.

Not one for a fuss, his response to grateful parents for his superb driving skills was very low-key.

“Legend,” one parent said. “Go Jase!”, said another.

To which he replied: “No worries.”