Monday, 3 November 2025
We did not get up at 5.30am to say our farewells to Robin before he headed off with his boat this morning. We were much wiser than that, and said our farewells last night! We rose at a much more reasonable hour, had a breakfast, packed our bags, packed the car, said our farewells to Sandra and we were on the road by 9.00am, heading first for Murchison on State Highway 6.
SH 6 was closed last week following the storms, so Bernie had checked several times over the weekend that the road ‘through the middle’ was going to be passable. NZ Journey Planner advised that the road was open but to expect delays as works continue to repair damage to the road.
We were between Wakefield and Belgrove when I noticed a message from Sandra saying we had left a green Macpac behind. We pulled over and rang to clarify what we had left behind. Aha, Bernie’s green fleece. As we were saying that he could manage without it, Robin rang, bumping Sandra off the call, to say his farewells to us from somewhere out on his boat in Tasman Bay. We told Robin, not to worry about the fleece for now, to bring it over in Feb when they visit Oz. Sandra rang back and we told her Bernie could manage without his green fleece for a few months. Luckily we had not left anything important behind!!
Expecting beautiful weather today, we were a bit disappointed with the mist around Kohatu. The cloud was rising rapidly, though and soon the promised sunshine was breaking through. We encountered our first stop/go traffic lights on the southern end of Kohatu with works being undertaken on Kohatu Bridge. Heading through this area the predominant agriculture was hops with hectares of hops just beginning to climb up their lines. On the surrounding hills, hectares and hectares of pine trees, with forestry being the other main industry in evidence.
Just after 10.00am we pulled in at the Kawatiri Picnic Area. We stretched our legs and took photographs of the remnant of an historic rail bridge. I made the mistake of leaving my car door open for the couple of minutes I was out of the car … and as we set off again we discovered we had company in the form of … midges!! Aaagh! I was sitting in the passenger seat swatting midges and squashing them against the interior of the car door. At least one of them was filled with blood – eeuuww – mine or someone else’s?
The hops and pines gave way to the natural forest of the Kahurangi National Park and Glenhope Scenic Reserve before we arrived at the Gowan Bridge over the Buller River where we stopped for another leg stretch and photo. Pretty sure we photographed the river from this bridge when we passed this way in 2022? While I was out of the car this time, I made sure to close the door!
In the valleys we started to see more pasture, with sheep and cows grazing in the lush green fields beside the road. Near Coal Creek we encountered more roadworks with a Temporary 30 speed limit and stop/go traffic lights. Traffic was reduced to a single lane here with half the road missing due to a landslip. We continued through Langford where cows and sheep were replaced with goats and deer.
We’re drove through Murchison about 11.00am and soon after passed another badly damaged section of road near the confluence of the Buller and Maruia Rivers. The works here were being carried out by abseilers! That’s a first, we’ve never seen roadworks being performed/assisted by abseilers before.
We turned off SH 6, heading west, onto Shenandoah Highway (SH 65) heading south. When we were here in 2022, we continued on SH 6 to the West Coast, so now we were driving through scenery we had not seen before. We pulled in at Maruia Falls, where we took advantage of the facilities. Not a bad drop toilet BUT it was filled with more of those midges!! Even if we haven’t actually been bitten by any of these midges, we both feel itchy. There is a (limited) view point at the top of the falls, so we took the time to walk down a short track to a better viewpoint. It was worth the effort as the falls are still running strongly after the rain last week.
Back on the road we crossed Pea Soup Creek and passed through the natural forest of the Shenandoah Conservation Area. Around the Rappahannock River we encountered more roadworks in a treed section of the route, where they continue to clear trees that fell during the recent storms. It looked like they had roughly cleared the trees to be able to reopen the road within a couple of days, with work continuing into this week to tidy up. As we headed south we were catching glimpses of the snow-capped peaks of the Southern Alps which was very picturesque.
After travelling beside the Maruia River for many kilometres, we crossed over the river before arriving at the T-intersection with State Highway 7. We turned left to travel though the Lewis Pass and on to Hanmer Springs. We stopped at a view point to take a photo looking north-west over the Maruia River to the mountains because all of this scenery is looking stunning on a blue sky and sunshine day.
There is another hot springs – Maruia Hot Springs – along this route. It’s just a spa/resort in the middle of the mountains, with no town having been established around it. The building looks new, so it would appear that the spring here has only been developed recently?? Quite different from Hanmer Springs which has been a spa town since the 1880s.
About half past twelve, we passed through Lewis Pass which was a bit anticlimactic. I think we expected it to be steeper and there were no photographic view points. Shortly after the pass we pulled in at the Saint James Walkway car park, to stretch our legs again and take another stunning photo of the mountains.
This section of road was the worst we have encountered for road kill. The road kill here is almost exclusively brush-tailed possums. As an introduced species, the Australian brush-tailed possum, is considered a pest and most New Zealanders think that the only good possums is a flat possum. There were certainly lots of flat ones today. More worrying was that there were falcons feeding on the abundant road kill, and we came rather too close to hitting a couple of very handsome birds of prey.
Shortly after Lewis Pass we encountered the most damaged section of road yet, with evidence of a large landslide having been cleared from the road. A little further south, after Boyle Village, there was another section where the river had washed out half the road when it was raging last week. On the map there is a dot marking Engineers Camp, not a settlement as such, but we drove past several big sheds where earthmoving equipment is stored. This degree of permanence suggests that the road has to be repaired regularly?!
As we travelled beside the Boyle and Hope Rivers the road was very low and very close to the water, with yet another section of road that had been significantly undercut when the river was running high after the storms. With all the damage still in evidence we could certainly see why this route was rendered impassible. The crews have worked very hard to get the road reopened.
Another river another photo, this time of the Waiau Uwha River near Gorge Stream, shortly before arriving at the intersection with SH 7A, which carries visitors into Hanmer Springs. When we visited the springs in 2022, we discovered PJ’s Pies so returned to the pie shack for lunch today. After scoffing our pies, we walked to the supermarket to buy a couple of items for breakfast tomorrow. Hmmn, that short walk took us past an ice-cream shop so, you know, we had to have ice-creams. It HAD been a long time since breakfast!
A very short drive from the main street (Amuri Avenue) saw us arriving at the Asure Hanmer Inn Motel. We checked in and unloaded our gear for the second last time on this holiday. After a cup of tea and a short sit down, it was time to walk to The Spa at Hanmer Springs for our session in a private pool followed by relaxing massages. Our massage therapists, Sophie and Annie, sorted out quite a few tight muscles for both of us. My legs certainly needed the treatment after our hike on Thursday!! Bliss.
Feeling mellow we wandered back to our room for showers before walking around the corner for a meal at Tease Bar & Eatery which rated 4.7 on Google. Oh, no, we turned the corner just in time to see a HUGE group of people crowding into the restaurant. Will they be able to fit us in or will we have to go elsewhere? Yes, they fitted us in. We decided what we wanted to eat without wasting any time, our orders were taken promptly and our food was delivered quickly. They were running a very efficient kitchen that was not overwhelmed by a big group coming in. Phew!
Steps: 8,999 (5.77kms)
