Footage shot 7 December 2017, one week before the State Highway through Kaikoura is opened to the public, a year since the 7.8m earthquake caused huge slips up and down the coast, cutting off the New Zealand South Island town from the rest of the country. This team of 100 abseilers is the largest assembled in the world right now, working to ensure the road and rail below these cliffs are safe. The team is removing losoe rock, drilling in posts and erecting geo-mesh fencing to stop further rock falls risking lives below.

Further info: In the countdown to the reopening of State Highway 1 [6 days to go], about 100 abseilers and their ground support crews are right now hard out working to secure the faces of the cleared landslides the length of the Kaikoura coast between Oaro and Clarence. This footage was shot at slip 20, south of Kaikoura, where abseilers are drilling giant bolts metres into rock, so geomesh can be pinned to the cliffs to stop rocks falling. Combined with catch benches / barriers below, this work will make the transport corridor safer and more resilient into the future. The abseilers spend about 10 hours a day on the cliffs. Some work from a base camps approx 300m up and/or must taken to and from their site by helicopter. There’s currently approx 1700 people working on the transport recovery between Picton and Christchurch, including inland crews.