diff --git a/packages/babel-traverse/src/path/index.js b/packages/babel-traverse/src/path/index.js
index 1469becd39..39a0e26348 100644
--- a/packages/babel-traverse/src/path/index.js
+++ b/packages/babel-traverse/src/path/index.js
@@ -77,15 +77,23 @@ export default class NodePath {
       }
     }
 
+    if (!(path instanceof NodePath)) {
+      if (path.constructor.name === "NodePath") {
+        // we're going to absolutley thrash the tree and allocate way too many node paths
+        // than is necessary but there's no way around this as the node module resolution
+        // algorithm is ridiculous
+        path = null;
+      } else {
+        // badly deserialised probably
+        throw new Error("We found a path that isn't a NodePath instance. Possiblly due to bad serialisation.");
+      }
+    }
+
     if (!path) {
       path = new NodePath(hub, parent);
       paths.push(path);
     }
 
-    if (!(path instanceof NodePath)) {
-      throw new Error("We found a path that isn't a NodePath instance");
-    }
-
     path.setup(parentPath, container, listKey, key);
 
     return path;