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Hawks Crag, Buller Gorge
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Location (city or town)Hawks CragBuller Gorge
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CommentsSusan Carrington Baistow Siddall
Came down to your beautiful Island Feb this year n our Motorhome, loved this area the work that went into forming roads n that era..AMAZING..
May be an image of nature and road
Albie Rose
Susan Carrington Baistow Siddall Would you believe on a wet day that road has been 2M under water.
Susan Carrington Baistow Siddall
Albie Rose Yes I believe that occurs, would be magnificent to see
Spr Ex SimRacer
Susan Carrington Baistow Siddall not as high as it was on the recent flood apparently, but impressive none the less.
Paul Maher
Susan Carrington Baistow Siddall great photo.
Susan Carrington Baistow Siddall
Paul Maher Thankyou..so beautiful down South
Jo Devine Evans
Imagine taking that corner too fast in a stage Coach in the old days!
Darrell Andrews
Awesome
Michael Madden
I passed Brough that crag a lot when I rove Newmains coaches on the West Coast run fron Nelson.
Alison Oliver
Scary roads back in the 1950's..travelled between Reefton and Westport many times, with my family, to play table tennis.John Clark
John Clark
Seen an old photo of a stage Coach coming around the corner......
Rob Lamb
one or two - sometimes three or four a year..
Jeff Jones
Sandra Mike Moore
Jeff Jones what an epic journey in those days.
John Anderson
Yes mow truck some years ago
Jon Hickford
And before it was made wider and higher too.
Kristine Cullen
Looks like one of Worlds most Dangerous Roads episodes
Heather Newby
Kristine Cullen ha ha.. youre right too.,
PaulAnthony Teens
If it was like that now the woke would not be allowed on the rd
Dennis Thompson
Yikes!!!
Brent Doncliff
At the beginning of 1985 I was carting fish from Westport to Nelson for Turner Seafoods. On the return trip I'd bring some empty galvanised car crates. On one trip I decided to stack two high, instead of just one layer. My calculations were about 2mm off. As I went through the Crag, it neatly skimmed off the 18 gauge galvanised iron covers off the top crates... and cut my support straps. It was like it had a can opener!! Luckily I had some back up ropes to gingerly tie the load back down and get back to Westport.
Ron Pearson
Brent Doncliff I rolled up a few bales of hay. Was a shit of a thing to clear it. Dad had issues with a load of furniture when in Gibbs transport. Some lowered tyre pressure to scrape through etc.
Albie Rose
And the river comes over it at times.
Hazel Oldham
Albie Rose isn't thete a penny on a post showing how high it got once
Albie Rose
Hazel Oldham yes there was don't know if it's still there haven't been there for awhile
Ruth Naylor
Yes the penny is still there marking the height of the 1926 flood. THere was a man killed when they were building the Crag. Over the years there have been accidents there.
Hazel Oldham
Passing was fun to
Marlene Boyd
As a Westport Hospital Kawatiri Lead Maternity Care Midwife the little car I was drove to Crushington broke down at Hawks Crag. Worse still the phone I had did not have reception there.
Craig Crestani
How would we know?
Kim Wilson
Craig Crestani we don't they are still down there!
Neroli Nolan
No road cones!
Margaret Standen
Remember Nan getting out the Rosary Beads and getting louder and louder around this road
Ash Franklyn
Does anyone have any pictures of floodwater in the crag perchance?
Chris Burles
Ash Franklyn What year?
Ash Franklyn
Chris Burles
Many as I understand it!
Chris Burles
Ash Franklyn Yes it has flooded a lot it's catchment is huge due to four other rivers flowing into it. This is one from 2011. 2021 was a record breaker at 12.8 meters.
8h
Edited
Ash Franklyn
Chris Burles
1991, and many more, 1935, 4ft over, 1921, about the same...
So that's what? 23m above normal?
Chris Burles
23 meters would be up in the trees and Westport would have been wiped off the map 12.8 is the highest on record since the Te Kuha monitoring station was put in in 1963.
Craig Guthrie
Ash Franklyn i have seen a video on you tube of a jetboat driving along the road in a flood. cant say i would fancy doing that. could imagine the river wouldnt be fun to boat on when its that high
Dawn Hurst
I did read that when the stage coach went through the people got off and walked around it!! Might of been a caption to a photo of the stage coach
Desree Kemp
Dawn Hurst I'm an oldie now born in westport late 30ties moved to Nelson earlie 40ties we went through there often to see family lovè seeing all these comments bringing up memories
Alva Mundy
Been on that road many a times
Mark Costelloe
Remember driving through this as a kid with the family after the Inangahua Earthquake.. trees hanging over the road an slips.. very scary
Hazel Oldham
We used to gave Sunday drives the whole family went out on a Sunday my father lived nothing more than to go through hawks graugcas we sat on the back if a jeep it was very scary. He also liked to go down the tip head abd turn another scary place .
Chris Burles
Pretty tight fit in earlier years
May be a black-and-white image of van and road
R Stuart Nicholson
The very-readable book on the Newman Bros, including their stage coach days, has some great photos.
The book refers to a death of an early workman who, on going to investigate an unexploded shot, fell and tripped, falling to his death below the Crag.
Beverley Leopold
That’s a scary thought I wonder the same thing
Alan Pegley
In Phil Walsh's excellent book Conquering Cascade page 136 he relates the story of George Hunter . In the 1940's he was driving a truckload of hay through the Crag when a steering rod snapped. He ended up in the river and swam to the other side!
Maree Lewis
It didn’t look quite that scary when we came through in 2013.
Robert Dan Cunningham
Herbert (Ralph) Stringer went off the Crag in a truck and survived,
Jeff Lemon
Great view
Rick McCaughan
Jeff Lemon that's a rear sight you don't often seen up there
Hadyn Norman James
There was that campervan that time...
Paul Rennie
Have a pic of 2 jet boats parked on road just come up the river.
Leanne Paramore
I'm pretty sure that my great aunt and uncle did they didn't die but I think the road was in flood and got sweat away I'm not sure of the time line
Came down to your beautiful Island Feb this year n our Motorhome, loved this area the work that went into forming roads n that era..AMAZING..
May be an image of nature and road
Albie Rose
Susan Carrington Baistow Siddall Would you believe on a wet day that road has been 2M under water.
Susan Carrington Baistow Siddall
Albie Rose Yes I believe that occurs, would be magnificent to see
Spr Ex SimRacer
Susan Carrington Baistow Siddall not as high as it was on the recent flood apparently, but impressive none the less.
Paul Maher
Susan Carrington Baistow Siddall great photo.
Susan Carrington Baistow Siddall
Paul Maher Thankyou..so beautiful down South
Jo Devine Evans
Imagine taking that corner too fast in a stage Coach in the old days!
Darrell Andrews
Awesome
Michael Madden
I passed Brough that crag a lot when I rove Newmains coaches on the West Coast run fron Nelson.
Alison Oliver
Scary roads back in the 1950's..travelled between Reefton and Westport many times, with my family, to play table tennis.John Clark
John Clark
Seen an old photo of a stage Coach coming around the corner......
Rob Lamb
one or two - sometimes three or four a year..
Jeff Jones
Sandra Mike Moore
Jeff Jones what an epic journey in those days.
John Anderson
Yes mow truck some years ago
Jon Hickford
And before it was made wider and higher too.
Kristine Cullen
Looks like one of Worlds most Dangerous Roads episodes
Heather Newby
Kristine Cullen ha ha.. youre right too.,
PaulAnthony Teens
If it was like that now the woke would not be allowed on the rd
Dennis Thompson
Yikes!!!
Brent Doncliff
At the beginning of 1985 I was carting fish from Westport to Nelson for Turner Seafoods. On the return trip I'd bring some empty galvanised car crates. On one trip I decided to stack two high, instead of just one layer. My calculations were about 2mm off. As I went through the Crag, it neatly skimmed off the 18 gauge galvanised iron covers off the top crates... and cut my support straps. It was like it had a can opener!! Luckily I had some back up ropes to gingerly tie the load back down and get back to Westport.
Ron Pearson
Brent Doncliff I rolled up a few bales of hay. Was a shit of a thing to clear it. Dad had issues with a load of furniture when in Gibbs transport. Some lowered tyre pressure to scrape through etc.
Albie Rose
And the river comes over it at times.
Hazel Oldham
Albie Rose isn't thete a penny on a post showing how high it got once
Albie Rose
Hazel Oldham yes there was don't know if it's still there haven't been there for awhile
Ruth Naylor
Yes the penny is still there marking the height of the 1926 flood. THere was a man killed when they were building the Crag. Over the years there have been accidents there.
Hazel Oldham
Passing was fun to
Marlene Boyd
As a Westport Hospital Kawatiri Lead Maternity Care Midwife the little car I was drove to Crushington broke down at Hawks Crag. Worse still the phone I had did not have reception there.
Craig Crestani
How would we know?
Kim Wilson
Craig Crestani we don't they are still down there!
Neroli Nolan
No road cones!
Margaret Standen
Remember Nan getting out the Rosary Beads and getting louder and louder around this road
Ash Franklyn
Does anyone have any pictures of floodwater in the crag perchance?
Chris Burles
Ash Franklyn What year?
Ash Franklyn
Chris Burles
Many as I understand it!
Chris Burles
Ash Franklyn Yes it has flooded a lot it's catchment is huge due to four other rivers flowing into it. This is one from 2011. 2021 was a record breaker at 12.8 meters.
8h
Edited
Ash Franklyn
Chris Burles
1991, and many more, 1935, 4ft over, 1921, about the same...
So that's what? 23m above normal?
Chris Burles
23 meters would be up in the trees and Westport would have been wiped off the map 12.8 is the highest on record since the Te Kuha monitoring station was put in in 1963.
Craig Guthrie
Ash Franklyn i have seen a video on you tube of a jetboat driving along the road in a flood. cant say i would fancy doing that. could imagine the river wouldnt be fun to boat on when its that high
Dawn Hurst
I did read that when the stage coach went through the people got off and walked around it!! Might of been a caption to a photo of the stage coach
Desree Kemp
Dawn Hurst I'm an oldie now born in westport late 30ties moved to Nelson earlie 40ties we went through there often to see family lovè seeing all these comments bringing up memories
Alva Mundy
Been on that road many a times
Mark Costelloe
Remember driving through this as a kid with the family after the Inangahua Earthquake.. trees hanging over the road an slips.. very scary
Hazel Oldham
We used to gave Sunday drives the whole family went out on a Sunday my father lived nothing more than to go through hawks graugcas we sat on the back if a jeep it was very scary. He also liked to go down the tip head abd turn another scary place .
Chris Burles
Pretty tight fit in earlier years
May be a black-and-white image of van and road
R Stuart Nicholson
The very-readable book on the Newman Bros, including their stage coach days, has some great photos.
The book refers to a death of an early workman who, on going to investigate an unexploded shot, fell and tripped, falling to his death below the Crag.
Beverley Leopold
That’s a scary thought I wonder the same thing
Alan Pegley
In Phil Walsh's excellent book Conquering Cascade page 136 he relates the story of George Hunter . In the 1940's he was driving a truckload of hay through the Crag when a steering rod snapped. He ended up in the river and swam to the other side!
Maree Lewis
It didn’t look quite that scary when we came through in 2013.
Robert Dan Cunningham
Herbert (Ralph) Stringer went off the Crag in a truck and survived,
Jeff Lemon
Great view
Rick McCaughan
Jeff Lemon that's a rear sight you don't often seen up there
Hadyn Norman James
There was that campervan that time...
Paul Rennie
Have a pic of 2 jet boats parked on road just come up the river.
Leanne Paramore
I'm pretty sure that my great aunt and uncle did they didn't die but I think the road was in flood and got sweat away I'm not sure of the time line
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West Coast New Zealand History (6th Nov 2023). Hawks Crag, Buller Gorge. In Website West Coast New Zealand History. Retrieved 28th May 2026 05:36, from https://westcoast.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/16453