63 and free

65000 turns and a gorgeous gorge.

The road from Takaka to Punakaiki is rather dizzying, but yours truly did it in 5 1/2 hours, a full hour less than was predicted by Google maps. That was a whole lot of luck rather than skill, as there are few places to pass.

Jan 18th, 2023. One of the single lane sections.

We made a pit stop at Buller Gorge. There is a fantastic swing bridge there!

At 110 metres, the swing bridge is the longest in New Zealand. Passing others is not all that much fun.
Looking down at the Buller River. It’s easy to see the high water marks.

The Buller Gorge is also home to the White Creek fault scarp. Created by the massive June 17th, 1929 Murchison/Buller earthquake (magnitude 7.8) it cut across a road here, lifting one side 4.5 metres! It triggered approximately 10000 landslides.

White Creek fault scarp.
18 million m^3 of sediment slid into the Matakitaki valley, just 5 km from the town of Murchison.

David and Bernadette Harris

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