Well, naturally -- mountains are everywhere you go in New Zealand. My Valentines Day present to myself was going to be a day trip on the TranzAlpine, the passenger train that runs from Christchurch west across Arthur's Pass to Greymouth on the west coast. It's one of the most scenic train trips in the world, all in modern coaches (which are called "carriages" here) with tall panoramic windows and even an outdoor viewing platform car or two. It's almost always sold out in summer, and I had booked and paid for the trip months ago. Then a brush fire broke out by the tracks, and damaged two bridges, the signalling system, and the tracks themselves. The TranzAlpine train service was cancelled until April. My ticket will be refunded in due course, but they have many thousands of refunds to process so it's going to take a while.
Anyway, I decided to retrace my path from 1994 and drive across the mountains on the same route. I was told beforehand that the highway has been significantly upgraded since then. In 1994, the long steep hill down the west side of Arthur's Pass included some single-lane sections where downbound traffic had to yield the right of way to upbound. Backing uphill on a curving road with no real guardrail in a car with a standard transmission was kind of scary, to put it mildly.
But all that comes later. To get to Arthur's Pass you have to drive from Christchurch for an hour across the flat, level farming country of the Canterbury Plains. Even after you pass Springfield and arrive in the mountains, you still get plenty of twisting hills, bends, and assorted slowdowns before you arrive at the summit and the main event. Ironically, Porters Pass which gets you over the first range of mountains is actually higher than Arthur's Pass, which crosses the main watershed of the South Island. The black line twisting along near or beside the highway is the railway line I was supposed to be travelling on.
These two photos show, first, the twisting hill coming up Porters Pass from the east, and second, the more direct downhill grade on the west side of the pass.
Some way north of Porters Pass is the remarkable natural spectacle of Castle Hill, actually a series of hills with peculiar rock outcroppings on them.
Still farther north is the broad, braided riverbed of the Waimakariri River. In spring flood the entire width of this channel could easily fill right up with water from side to side.
A fast Alpine stream flowing down into the sharp, narrow valley of Arthur's Pass.
The main event: the Otira Hill. On the right side of the photo, look at the very top of the huge rockslide. You are looking at the ledge where the road used to be, snaking steeply downwards at a grade of 16% or more, and only one lane wide in places. It rejoined the present day road just at the far end of the viaduct.
The road had to be moved because there were only a few years left before the rockslide started carrying the entire highway down into the valley. The picture is taken from a hilltop lookout known as "Deaths Corner", where the road used to twist sharply to the right and climb all the way up to that high ledge. I suspect a number of careless drivers over the years failed to make the curve, hence the gruesome name.
When I drove the Otira Hill in 1994, I described it in my diary in words I could never forget: "The road climbed high up onto the east side of the valley and then the bottom fell out of the world." Here's an old aerial photo showing the road as I drove it in 1994. The red arrow indicates the location of the lookout (Deaths Corner) where I took the above picture of the viaduct, and the blue line indicates the approximate location of the present-day road and viaduct.
Around the next bend below the viaduct, a waterfall and rockfall have both been tamed. That rockfall path buried the highway about a month after I drove down 23 years ago, and that's when the shelter and waterfall chute were built
.
The lookout point was being visited by a pair of keas, a unique species of alpine parrot found only in the south island of New Zealand/
Another picture, lower down the hill, shows why the valley is best called the Otira Gorge.
Farther down and out into the broader lower valley, but still with massive mountains close by on both sides of the highway.
It was from the railway company that I found out about the village of Moana, on the shores of Lake Brunner. I decided to head off the main road in that direction, and had a delightful visit. It started with lunch on the patio of the Stationhouse Cafe. I then walked down the hill to view the rail station itself, and carried on around the back to get these views of the lake and its surrounding mountains.
The return trip to Christchurch was pretty much direct, with only two brief stops, and took just over 3 hours to complete. Quite the day's adventure!
These two photos show, first, the twisting hill coming up Porters Pass from the east, and second, the more direct downhill grade on the west side of the pass.
Some way north of Porters Pass is the remarkable natural spectacle of Castle Hill, actually a series of hills with peculiar rock outcroppings on them.
Still farther north is the broad, braided riverbed of the Waimakariri River. In spring flood the entire width of this channel could easily fill right up with water from side to side.
A fast Alpine stream flowing down into the sharp, narrow valley of Arthur's Pass.
The main event: the Otira Hill. On the right side of the photo, look at the very top of the huge rockslide. You are looking at the ledge where the road used to be, snaking steeply downwards at a grade of 16% or more, and only one lane wide in places. It rejoined the present day road just at the far end of the viaduct.
The road had to be moved because there were only a few years left before the rockslide started carrying the entire highway down into the valley. The picture is taken from a hilltop lookout known as "Deaths Corner", where the road used to twist sharply to the right and climb all the way up to that high ledge. I suspect a number of careless drivers over the years failed to make the curve, hence the gruesome name.
When I drove the Otira Hill in 1994, I described it in my diary in words I could never forget: "The road climbed high up onto the east side of the valley and then the bottom fell out of the world." Here's an old aerial photo showing the road as I drove it in 1994. The red arrow indicates the location of the lookout (Deaths Corner) where I took the above picture of the viaduct, and the blue line indicates the approximate location of the present-day road and viaduct.
Around the next bend below the viaduct, a waterfall and rockfall have both been tamed. That rockfall path buried the highway about a month after I drove down 23 years ago, and that's when the shelter and waterfall chute were built
The lookout point was being visited by a pair of keas, a unique species of alpine parrot found only in the south island of New Zealand/
Another picture, lower down the hill, shows why the valley is best called the Otira Gorge.
Farther down and out into the broader lower valley, but still with massive mountains close by on both sides of the highway.
It was from the railway company that I found out about the village of Moana, on the shores of Lake Brunner. I decided to head off the main road in that direction, and had a delightful visit. It started with lunch on the patio of the Stationhouse Cafe. I then walked down the hill to view the rail station itself, and carried on around the back to get these views of the lake and its surrounding mountains.
The return trip to Christchurch was pretty much direct, with only two brief stops, and took just over 3 hours to complete. Quite the day's adventure!
A photo gallery and description of the incredible highway 73 from Christchurch to the west coast of the South Island.
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