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| Skipper's Canyon | |
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| Topic Started: Aug 26 2015, 12:31 PM (250 Views) | |
| Kahu | Aug 26 2015, 12:31 PM Post #1 |
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The Skippers Canyon Road, located in in the south-west of New Zealand's South Island, is today one of New Zealand's better known scenic roads and unbelievably scary as it’s totally narrow and difficult to manouvre your car. This gravel road, with a length of 16,5 miles, carved by hand by miners over 140 years ago is made from a very narrow cut in the middle of a sheer cliff face. It’s a road so dangerous that your rental car insurance won’t be honored if you drive on it. The road was built during the gold rush, when a precarious pack track was the only access to Skippers township and the Upper Shotoverdiggings. Constructed between 1883 and 1890, the Skippers Road was considered a major engineering feat in its day. The miners who built the road in the late 1800s didn’t think much about luxury, though — it’s unpaved and very narrow. Should you encounter a car driving the other way, one of you will have to back up gingerly until you can find enough room to pass. Good luck figuring out which of you that will be. The road is so narrow that if two vehicles have to pass each other, one vehicle might have to reverse for anything up to 3 kilometres of winding narrow road to get to a place wide enough to pass. It’s one of only two roads in the country where rental car insurance is not honoured if driven on. Skippers Road is mostly one-way, narrow and steep with sheer drops of several hundred metres. I drove this road over 40 yrs ago in a VW Beetle (1956) ... it was more than hair raising then than the video shows. Today I believe the road is actually closed to private transport and tourist operators travel in and out on a timed schedule to avoid meeting in the hair raising bits! There are the remnant settlements of the gold rush days and it's often simply amazing to find an apple or apricot tree growing in the midst of windblown tussock. |
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| FuzzyO | Aug 26 2015, 02:14 PM Post #2 |
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Crazy! |
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| Kahu | Aug 26 2015, 02:22 PM Post #3 |
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It's one of the very few places in NZ where you can see a basic European style stone buildings. I know that sounds somewhat strange to someone from the northern hemisphere but most buildings here are in timber and all the very old ones have rotted away. Stone schist buildings were quite common in this region and there are remnants from both european and chinese societies. |
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| Durgan | Aug 26 2015, 05:07 PM Post #4 |
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Veteran Member
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I think the other place where the insurance companies weasel out is Ninety Mile Beach on the North Island. |
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| Kahu | Aug 26 2015, 05:57 PM Post #5 |
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That's because of quicksands in places along that stretch of coastline ... there are tour operators which use a part of that route today. However, it's rather frowned upon as it has damaged regenerating toheroa beds. Posted Image Local iwi in the Far North have previously voiced concerns about vehicles being used on the beach and said they may look at restricting access, in particular for heavy buses, as part of their Treaty of Waitangi settlement. The Crown Range Road too ... The road is the highest main road in New Zealand reaching an altitude of 1,121m above the sea level. This drive is not for the faint hearted and several of the bends are actual hairpins bends many with 35km to 15km sharp bends, the drive on the descent drops away to a seeminly bottomless gorge. There are some switchbacks on the descent and the road is not advised for towing vehicles or vehicles longer than about 12 metres. Source link Edited by Kahu, Aug 26 2015, 06:09 PM.
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| sooty | Aug 26 2015, 06:45 PM Post #6 |
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Blue Star Member
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On Christmas day 1978 we drove from Christchurch to one of the harbours on a single lane road, reversing to allow oncoming cars was hair raising and at that time there were no guard rails.I found out later that it was not covered by insurance. On my bookcase is a photo on one of the crests showing my young brother[with hair] and a slim blonde me. Still it was one of the most memorable holidays for us. NZ is great. |
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| Kahu | Aug 27 2015, 12:59 AM Post #7 |
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Were you heading for Akaroa, the French settlement on Banks Peninsula? Some of those coastal roads are fairly tortuous but I don't think they've been excluded from insurance issues. Maybe it was the Bridle track which is high, very narrow, tortuous and was the main road from the port of Lyttleton before the tunnel was built? There was a famous tearooms there called ... 'The Sign of the Kiwi'. Maybe that rings bells? Or 'The Sign of the Takahe'
Edited by Kahu, Aug 27 2015, 01:03 AM.
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| sooty | Aug 27 2015, 01:12 AM Post #8 |
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Blue Star Member
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I remember some tea rooms in an old stone building which my mum loved. The sign of the Takahe rings a bell. Unfortunately I tossed the photos a few years ago only keeping those that showed family. Possibly Port Lyttleton but Akaroa also rings a bell. I didn't bother with diaries then and it shows up in my memories now. We spent two days in Christchurch , one being Christmas Day , then headed south to Mt. Cook. I loved your sheep because they were white. Aussie sheep have that dirty grey colour. |
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| Kahu | Aug 27 2015, 01:46 AM Post #9 |
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That area, was part of the Canterbury Province, which with Christchurch was built very much in the British style. The Bridle Track had a number of coaching houses built along it's length. The Sign of the Takahe, was the grandest built in a manorial style ... and I think there was a Sign of the Bellbird too. I think the Sign of the Kiwi was used as an observational post during WWII. |
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