WESTLAND LINK WITH OTAGO LONG A DREAM

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30900, 5 November 1965, Page 20

WESTLAND LINK WITH OTAGO LONG A DREAM

Opening Tomorrow At Knight Point

The Paringa-Haast road, completing the long-dreamed-of link between Westland and Otago, via the Haast Pass, will be opened by the Prime Minister (Mr Holyoake) about 11.30 ajn. tomorrow.

The ceremony will take place at Knight Point, in rugged country a mile south of the Whakapohai river, on the lastcompleted seven-mile section of the road. It marks the end of a £4.5m project, 35 years under construction. First begun about 1929, the building of the OtagoWestland link was interrupted by both the depression of the thirties, and the Second World War in the forties.

The completion of this great work comes exactly 100 years after the first parties from the Otago gold diggings forced their way over the Haast Pass to the West Coast gold fields. Tomorrow, the travellers from Wanaka attending the opening of the Paringa-Haast road will make the journey over the Haast Pass by modern motor road.

This section of the link, from Wanaka over the Haast Pass to Haast township, on the sea coast, was opened by the then Minister of Works (Mr Watt) on November 12,1960. The Haast Pass, key factor in the new through-route, is the lowest main-divide crossing in the whole length of the Southern Alps. Although flanked by peaks rising above 8000 ft, with Mt. Aspiring towering 9957 ft to its south-west, the pass is only 1847 ft above sea level. It is not blocked by snow except in the severest winters.

An article elsewhere in this supplement tells the story of the discovery, and first crossings, of the Haast Pass.