Looking up the Waimakariri River towards Arthur’s Pass
In the mid 1800s, shepherds searching for grazing land beyond the Canterbury Plains were the first Europeans to explore the rugged mountain wilderness of Arthur's Pass National Park. Long before this time, Maori travellers and traders used the pass to reach the pounamu (jade) rivers of the West Coast. When gold was found on the West Coast in the 1860s, the pass was surveyed and developed into a road.
Photo credit: L. Molloy, © Department of Conservation
Christchurch - Canterbury