The difficult history of Kaikōura’s road and rail links

From Afternoons, 1:42 pm on 30 November 2016

Arrival of the first passenger train to Kaikoura 1945. Photo: National Library

Morris Minor car Kaikoura Coast Road Hundalee Hills Marlborough 1950. Photo: Whites Aviation Ltd

View of the Clarence Bridge under construction, Main Trunk Line, Marlborough. 1940 (National Library)

Star, Issue 7257, 19 November 1901 (courtesy Papers Past)

A house at Bluff Station between Blenheim & Kaikoura, which is right on the Kekerengu fault line, was demolished by the shakes (photo: RNZ / Alex Perrottet)

The hilly territory between Canterbury and Marlborough hit by the magnitude 7.8 earthquake earlier this month has long had a reputation for being difficult country to traverse.

Sarah Johnston from Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision has been digging into the archives to see how people in the past have grappled with the steep Kaikōura coast and the rivers and hills of the ‘inland route’.

Listen to Sarah Johnston play archival recordings from the 1950s of people who travelled the route and lived in the area 10:39

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Aerial video from the Ministry of Public works in 1939 of the Kaikōura coast road construction.