Photo: Facebook/Billy Haldane/via ReutersTasman people are being told to prepare themselves for a long and frustrating cleanup after what's been described as the worst storm in living memory. Mayor Richard Kempthorne said it could take more than a year and more than $1 million to properly clean up the region. "We have had a lot of damage, a lot of damage to the state highway and to council roads. "And we've had the river breach before and we've had a bit of silt and rocks and that but we've never had the level of damage we've seen. The Queenstown Lakes District Council said this morning the Crown Range had been closed due to extreme rock fall danger.

Source: Otago Daily Times February 21, 2018 20:03 UTC