Kawatiri Historic Railway Walk
- 30 min return by the same track
- Easy
This tiny little track explores a section of the former Nelson-Glenhope Railway, including a station site, bridge, and tunnel.
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Walking time
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30 min |
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Distance
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1.5km |
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Type
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Return by the same track
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Grade
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Easy |
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Bookings
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No bookings — open access
No — open access
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Starts
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Kawatiri Campsite, junction of SH6 and SH63, Buller River. |
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Maps
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NZTopo50-BR24
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Altitude
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360m |
The plan was to link Nelson up by rail with Cobden and Westport on the West Coast via the Buller Gorge. Sections of the line were opened from 1876 onward, but the line never made it past Gowanbridge due to costs and the impacts of the 1929 Murchison Earthquake. The Glenhope-Kawatiri section closed 1931, and the remainder of the line through to Nelson closed 1954. Other relics of this section include the Belgrove Windmill, railway reserves in Nelson, and the Glenhope Railway Station.
Today, the station site at Kawatiri is occupied by a camping area with shelter and interpretation panels. From here, a track leads upriver and onto a railway bridge (since converted for pedestrians) over the Hope River. Here, at Woodhen Bend, the track passes through a railway tunnel marked "1927". Over another bridge, the track leaves the path of the railway, climbing a staircase to a pleasant benched beech forest track that loops back to the tunnel entrance.
| This track needs a photograph. |