Lewis Pass Highway (469 km)
Christchurch to Murchison · one way, about 469 km back to the start
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Why this ride
469 km from Christchurch to the finish, about 6 h 22 of riding. It goes by way of Hanmer Springs and Lewis Pass. The highest point is about 1,000 m. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Roadbook
- Christchurch
start
Christchurch is a city that has had to rebuild its heart and has done so with imagination and some stubbornness. About three hundred and sixty thousand people live on the flat Canterbury Plains, with the Port Hills to the south and the Southern Alps on the western horizon, and the city carries the nickname Garden City thanks to its parks, the willow-lined Avon River and the Botanic Gardens in the centre.
On 22 February 2011 a powerful earthquake struck, killing 185 people and destroying much of the centre, including the old cathedral in the square, which was left broken and unsafe. Years of clearance followed, and the city has rebuilt with new buildings, street art and open spaces. The transitional cathedral, built partly from cardboard tubes, became a symbol of that patient work. Visitors can punt on the Avon, walk through the Botanic Gardens and see the Canterbury Museum, a good place for a rainy morning.
The setting is full of interest. Banks Peninsula, an eroded pair of ancient volcanoes to the east, has steep bays and old French-settled Akaroa, and the Port Hills offer sweeping views over the city. Out on the plains, the nor'wester, a hot and dry wind from the mountains, can blow hard in summer, and the dust and heat are characteristic. In winter, frost and fog can sit over the plains for days.
For riders, Christchurch is the start of the road north-west towards Lewis Pass. The first stretch is flat, fast and busy, with State Highway 1 and then State Highway 7 crossing farmland and passing through Amberley and Waipara, before the land begins to rise towards the hills. Traffic builds on Friday afternoons and holiday weekends, and speed cameras operate. The real riding begins once you have left the plain behind, and you can see the mountains growing.
Fuel and services are everywhere in a city of this size, with workshops, supermarkets and specialist shops for motorcyclists. Fill up before you leave, since stations north of the city are spaced further apart, and have a good breakfast. Cafes in the city centre serve excellent coffee, and the market on weekends offers local produce.
Leave early to beat the traffic and watch the Southern Alps appear. On a clear morning the first sight of them is thrilling.
- Hanmer Springs
scenic
Hanmer Springs is a small alpine village in the Hurunui district of north Canterbury, set in a broad basin among forested hills about an hour and a half's drive from the Pacific coast. The hot springs here were found by European settlers in the 1850s and have been in use ever since, and the thermal pools at the centre of the village, with their rock pools, sulphur baths and water slides, are what draw most visitors. Around them the village has cafes, restaurants, a handful of shops and a long list of places to stay, and about a thousand people live here year-round.
The village is also the gateway to the Molesworth Station road, the long gravel track between Hanmer Springs and Blenheim that crosses what is said to be New Zealand's largest farm. The road follows the Acheron and Awatere valleys through a vast, empty high country of tussock hills, mountains and braided rivers, and it is open to the public only in the summer months, usually from around December to April, with a small fee. In winter it is closed. If you plan to ride it, check the dates and conditions with the local information centre.
So fill up in Hanmer Springs before you leave, since the next reliable pump is in Blenheim, a long way off. Pack water and a few snacks. The countryside is arid and bare, and it feels huge, with the Kaikoura ranges standing at the edge of the view. The route is an old stock road and later a supply road to the station, and you see the old huts and yards along the way.
Back in the village, there are walks in the forest park, where the larch and redwood stands planted in the early twentieth century make a good place to spend an hour. The thermal pools are a fine way to finish a ride, especially on a cold evening in autumn, and soaking tired shoulders after a day on gravel is one of the great pleasures of the South Island.
- Lewis Pass
scenic · 864 m
Lewis Pass is a low, unhurried crossing of the Southern Alps, only 864 metres high, but it feels grander than that because the whole route runs through unbroken beech forest and wild river valleys. State Highway 7 links the Canterbury plains with the West Coast, and it does so by following the Waiau and Lewis rivers up through a corridor of mountains, past the Lewis Pass Scenic Reserve, and then down along the Maruia River toward Murchison. It was named for Henry Lewis, a surveyor who crossed it in 1860, though Māori had used it for centuries to reach the pounamu, the greenstone, of the West Coast.
The riding is easy but beautiful. The road is wide, well surfaced and gently graded, with long, open curves that suit a relaxed pace, and in good weather it is a day of pure, undemanding pleasure. The country opens up at the Lewis Pass Tops, where you can see alpine tussock, rock and a few remaining patches of snow in early summer. Birds are everywhere in the forest, and with luck you will hear the bell-like call of a tui or glimpse a bright flash of a kea.
Hanmer Springs, at the eastern end, is the town to know. Its thermal pools have drawn bathers since the nineteenth century, and a hot soak at the end of a long day is almost obligatory. At the western end, the road drops into the Buller region, where the weather changes abruptly and the sky is often grey and wet.
In winter the pass can ice up and snow can close it briefly, so check the road report. Spring brings wild flowers and cold mornings, summer is warm and busy, and autumn turns the beech forests a soft russet. Sandflies appear the moment you stop, so keep repellent in the tank bag. The traffic includes heavy trucks, which slow on the hills, so take the overtaking points when they come.
- Murchison
finish
Murchison is a small town with a big memory. On 17 June 1929, a powerful earthquake, around magnitude 7.8, struck the area, killing seventeen people and triggering enormous landslides that blocked valleys and rivers and cut roads and telegraph lines for weeks. The land was reshaped, and some of the new lakes and scars from that day are still visible. The Murchison Museum tells the story with photographs, and it is quite moving.
A few hundred people live here now, in a farming and tourism community on the Buller River, in the northern part of the South Island, with forested hills all around. In the nineteenth century gold brought prospectors to the valley, and the town was a service centre for the diggings. Today the river is the draw, with white-water rafting, kayaking and fly fishing, and the beech forests of Nelson Lakes National Park lie a short distance away. The air has a clean, green smell, particularly after rain.
The ride from the south follows the Lewis Pass Highway, State Highway 7, which crosses the divide at about 864 metres through beech forest and valleys of bright green moss. It was the main route to the West Coast from the Canterbury side, and it passes the thermal pools of Maruia Springs. Hanmer Springs, where the ride starts, has its own hot pools in a pretty alpine village, and is an excellent place to soak after a cold day. The road is smooth and winding, with long bends and few tight corners, and in good weather it is a pleasure.
Watch for rain and cloud on the pass, with cold snaps even in summer, and ice and snow in winter. The traffic is light, mostly trucks and campervans. Sandflies are a nuisance at every stop, and the beech forest is damp.
Fuel is a point to think about. The nearest larger towns are Nelson to the north-east and Westport to the west, each a good distance away. The local cafes offer a warm meal and a hot drink, and the pub is a friendly place to end the day.
Arrive with time to spare, walk down to the river, and enjoy the quiet. The valley feels like the end of the line, and in a way it is.