Lewis Pass

Lewis Pass
Lewis Pass is located in New Zealand
Lewis Pass
Elevation907 m (2,976 ft)
Traversed byState Highway 7
LocationNew Zealand
RangeSouthern Alps
Coordinates42°22′47″S 172°24′00″E / 42.3797°S 172.4°E / -42.3797; 172.4
Lewis Pass

Lewis Pass is the northernmost of the three main mountain passes through the Southern Alps in the South Island of New Zealand. With an elevation of 907 metres, it is slightly lower than Arthur's Pass and higher than Haast Pass.

The pass is the saddle between the valleys of the Maruia River to the northwest in the West Coast Region and the Lewis River to the southeast in north Canterbury. The small spa of Maruia Springs is close to the saddle, on the West Coast side.

Lewis Pass is named after Henry Lewis who, together with Christopher Maling, was the first European to discover the pass, in April 1860 while working as a surveyor of the Nelson Provincial Survey Department.[1][2] Before this time the pass was used by the Ngāi Tahu Māori of Canterbury to transport pounamu (greenstone) from the west coast.[3][4]

State Highway 7 traverses the pass. The road officially opened on Saturday 30 October 1937. It had a regular bus route over it until Intercity's service was replaced by a seasonal shuttle.[5][6][7]

The highway passes through extensive unmodified native beech forest. The area around the pass is protected as a national reserve, the Lewis Pass National Scenic Reserve, which was gazetted in 1981.[8] There are a number of tramping routes in the Lewis Pass area, including the St James Walkway. The short Alpine Nature Walk loop walk around an alpine wetland and tarn is accessed from a carpark near the saddle.

  1. ^ Gair, Harry (1966). "Lewis Pass". In McLintock, A. H. (ed.). An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand. Ministry for Culture and Heritage / Te Manatū Taonga. Retrieved 21 July 2024.
  2. ^ "Accommodation Collingwood – Lewis House Historic home self contained accommodation on the beach in Golden Bay". Archived from the original on 29 November 2010. Retrieved 16 February 2011.
  3. ^ Darroch Donald, Footprint New Zealand, Footprint Travel Guides, 2007, p. 499, ISBN 1-906098-04-2 or ISBN 978-1-906098-04-9
  4. ^ Laura Harper, Tony Mudd, Paul Whitfield, Rough Guide to New Zealand, Rough Guides, 2002, p. 683, ISBN 1-85828-896-7 or ISBN 978-1-85828-896-3
  5. ^ "Lewis Pass highway opened". The Press. 1 November 1937. Retrieved 15 January 2023 – via paperspast.natlib.govt.nz.
  6. ^ McMahon, Brendon (21 November 2022). "'Hallelujah': NZTA listens to West Coast village's plea after 40 years of lobbying". Stuff. Retrieved 15 January 2023.
  7. ^ "West Coast Shuttle Service". East West Coaches. Retrieved 15 January 2023.
  8. ^ Canterbury (Waitaha) Conservation Management Strategy 2016 (PDF). New Zealand Department of Conservation. 2016. p. 61. Retrieved 25 October 2023.