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Explore the attractions in and around Greymouth before heading east to the historic gold town of Reefton and the Maruia Springs hot pools. More thermal attractions lie waiting on the other side of the beautiful forest-clad Lewis Pass at Hanmer Springs and at Waikare you can catch a ride on the historic Weka Pass Railway.
Located at the southern end of the Spenser Mountains, Lewis Pass, leads from the Lewis River into the Maruia River, separating the Maruia and
Waiau watershed areas, marking the boundary between Canterbury and Nelson. Rediscovered by Europeans in 1861 and named after the surveyor
Henry Lewis, the pass was originally used as a route to the West
Coast by generations of Ngai Tahu Maori in search of greenstone.
Food was scarce on the West Coast, so the Maori took slaves,
who had been captured in battle, with them on their journeys. The slaves carried food and supplies on these long trips
across the mountains. When the food supplies ran low on the way back,
the slaves were often killed and eaten on the pass and their
remains flung into Cannibal Gorge. The Maori name for the gorge
was Kapai-o-kai-tangata, meaning 'a good feed of human flesh'. Although Lewis Pass (863 m) is not as high as the alpine passes
further south, it never became an important route to the West Coast goldfields, so it wasn’t until the economic depression in the 1930s that the road was built, becoming the main route from Canterbury to Westport and Nelson. The traverse from west to east is a beautiful scenic journey on an
excellent road through the mountains and the beech
forests of the Southern Alps. For the energetic, there are some excellent
walking tracks in the area.
Greymouth
1Greymouth
The trip begins in Greymouth on SH7.
One of Greymouth's features is a huge rock
breakwater along the Grey (Mawheranui) River, built in 1991 after
two disastrous floods. Known as the ‘the great wall of Greymouth’, the breakwater protects the
town from floodwaters and directs the force
of the river currents against the sand bar at
the river mouth, reducing the amount of
dredging needed to keep the channel free. A
walk along the top of the wall provides an
interesting perspective of what has become the largest town on the West Coast. After the gold rush years, Greymouth became a main centre for the coal and timber
industries, serviced by its port
on the Grey River
and its rail link to Christchurch via the Otira Tunnel. The History House Museum, on
Gresson Street, has an extensive photographic collection as well as fascinating
displays relating to the town's history. The
historic Monteith's Brewing Company, on the
corner of Turumaha and Herbert Streets,
offers tours that include sampling their
award-winning beers. Established in Reefton in 1868, Monteith’s Brewing Company is the only remaining brewery dating back to the gold-rush days. The Left Bank Art Gallery and the Jade
Boulder Gallery, both in Tainui Street, feature
displays of greenstone (New Zealand jade).
Greenstone is found mainly in the West Coast
region, in a belt of rocks in the Southern Alps
that are more than 200 million years old.
These rocks have been washed down the rivers all the way out to the
coast in places. For many centuries Maori
from both Islands braved the alps and the
wild coastline to seach for this precious stone
they called pounamu, which played a central
part in their culture. The hard stone could be
worked to a razor-sharp edge and was used
to make tools and weapons. It was also intricately
carved into tribal emblems and ornaments
to which great prestige was attached.
THE BRUNNER MINE
Drive east on Omoto Road and SH7 11 km to the swingbridge across the Grey River on the left that leads to the Brunner mine site.
Thomas Brunner first reported coal seams
in the area in 1848, but it was not until the
1860s that production of fire bricks and coke began at Brunnertown. By 1891 this was the
largest coalmining settlement in New Zealand, and with a population of 2231 it was the
third largest town on the West Coast. In 1896 Brunner was the scene of the
country's worst mining disaster when a gas
explosion killed 67 men and boys working
underground in the mine. Although the last coal was
brought out of the mines in 1906, the coke ovens and brickworks were kept in production until the 1930s with supplies of coal from the St Kilda
mine further up the river. Today you can walk
around the historic reserve and explore the
pit-head machinery along with many of the old kilns
and the entrances to the tunnels.
Reefton - Pub
2REEFTON
Continue northeast 65.3 km on SH7 to Reefton.
Originally named Reeftown before the name was abbreviated, Reefton came into prominence in 1870
with the discovery of rich gold-bearing quartz
reefs in the surrounding hills and valleys, the town soon becoming nicknamed Quartzopolis.
Reefton prospered and although it became the first town in
Australasia to get electric lighting, when
the gold dwindled, so did the settlement's
fortunes. Miners continued to
extract coal from the hills for many years but the gold mines had all closed by 1951 and it wasn’t until 2008 that gold extraction resumed with the opening of a new open-cast pit.
Interesting historic buildings in the town
include the courthouse (1872) on Church
Street, Sacred Heart and St Stephen's
Churches (1878) on Walsh Street and
the School of Mines (1886) on Shiel Street.
A number of gold workings can be visited in the hills nearby and there is a replica of a
gold mine in the Reefton Visitor Centre on
Broadway.
3MARUIA SPRING
Continue east 59.8 km on SH7 to Maruia Springs on the left.
The warm volcanic springs on the north bank of the Maruia River were visited by goldminers until the early 1900s, when the water was piped across the river to what is now the Maruia Springs thermal resort. Featuring a
Japanese-style bath-house and naturally
heated outdoor rock pools, the complex is a relaxing place to break the
journey, especially in winter after the first
snowfalls.
MARUIA DECLARATION
The Maruia valley contains beautiful stands of red and silver beech trees. The largest trees in these forests are the red beech, which can grow as tall as 30 m. The interior of the forest is quite open, with beech saplings growing below gaps in the canopy where light penetrates through to the forest floor. Sitting around a campfire on the snow-covered banks of the Maruia River in 1975, a group of 40 conservationists concerned about the proposed clear felling of native timber, signed a petition to save these magnificent lowland forests. The petition became known as the Maruia Declaration, attracting over 340,000 signatures as it was circulated around New Zealand. Although not accepted by the government of the day, it eventually became a blueprint for the conservation of New Zealand’s native forests.
Lewis Pass
4Lewis Pass
Continue east 6.4 km over the Lewis Pass on SH7 to the Tarn Nature Walk on the left.
The road climbs through forests of red and
silver beech into the subalpine zone, where you will see small alpine tarns and stunted,
moss-covered vegetation. Near the summit
of Lewis Pass on the left side of the road, a
30-minute walking track, the Tarn Nature
Walk, loops through the red tussock, bog pine and club moss covered landscape into a mountain beech
forest draped in lichens near the start of the St James Walkway.
5HANMER SPRINGS
Continue 62.3 km south on SH 7 and turn left onto Hanmer Springs Road. Drive north 9.5 km to Hanmer Springs. The road crosses the historic Waiau Ferry Bridge, built in
1886-87 across a deep gorge to replace the
original wooden bridge
which blew down in the
1870s.
Already well known to the Maori,
these thermal springs,
nestled in the mountains
were discovered by a local European runholder, William Jones 1859. The first facilities were opened in 1883 and Hammer
was developed as a health
resort with its own sanatorium. Today hydrotherapy is an additional attraction to relaxing in hot pools for pleasure, while the exotic forests
that surround the area
provide a number of walks
through tall
stands of trees, some of
which were planted a century ago. Few of the original
buildings have survived in
the township, but the
wooden post office dates
back to 1901.
6hurunui
Return to SH7 and head south 39.9 km on Mouse Point Road and SH7 to the Hurunui River and the nearby histroric Hurunui Hotel on the left.
The Hurunui Hotel has one of the longest
continuous tenures in the country, with its
licence dating back well over a century. This
fascinating old building was constructed
from blocks of limestone and pitsawn timber
in 1869. John Hastie's original licence for this
hotel included the provision that horses
had to be provided for travellers to ford the
river.
WEKA PASS RESERVE
Continue 13.7 km south on SH7 to the Waikare Township. The 20 minute track crossing farmland to the reserve can be reached from the Star and Garter Hotel carpark.
Visitors to the reserve can examine some
remarkable examples of early Maori art. The
drawings on the limestone walls of an
overhanging rock face date back over 500
years to when the site was used as a natural
rock shelter by groups of Maori hunting moa
and other birds that were abundant in the
area. The drawings include human figures,
fish and dogs, which the artists drew using a red ochre (kokowai) as well as
charcoal from their fires. Julius Haast made the first scientific investigations of the rock drawings in 1876, discovering flaked stone tools, charcoal and fire stones as well as food remains including bones and shells.
7WEKA PASS RAILWAY
Return to SH7 and continue south 13.8 km to Waipara. Turn left onto Glenmark Drive to reach the Glenmark Station on the right.
This historic rural railway operates both vintage steam and diesel-electric locomotives on just over 12 km of scenic line through the scenic limestone rock formations of Weka Pass. The railway climbs from flat farm land on grades as steep as l:50 as it winds through tcuttings that were dug out by hand in the 1800s. This landscape was once part of the sea-floor and in places you can see sea shells and fossils in the walls of the cuttings as well as rock formations which have weathered into unusual shapes, including Frog Rock and Seal Rock, in the middle of the Weka Pass. The line opened to Waikari in 1882 and by 1919 had reached Waiau. Although it was planned to extend the line to the West Coast, Nelson and Picton, the exceptionally steep grades through the Weka Pass, led to a route around the coast later being chosen to reach Picton. The "A" class 'Pacific' locomotive No. 428 operating on the line, was built in 1909 for New Zealand Rail in Thames. These engines were the pride of the North Island main trunk line in their heyday, hauling the express trains. This is the only one of its kind still in working steam condition. The Dg class Diesel-electric locomotives were built by English Electric in England in 1956, two of which are still operating on the Weka Pass Railway. Weighing over 65 tons and producing 750 hp, they were built to last and feature galvanized body panels. The trains run on the first and third Sundays of each month and on every Sunday in January from Waipara.
Return to SH7 and continue south 55.6 km to Christchurch.