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ALBUM - ZIG ZAG, OTIRA GORGE - ARTHURS PASS.
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DescriptionIn 1970, when I was licensed to drive at the age of 15, it was essential to top up the vehicle's water and oil before motoring to Christchurch via the zig-zag road over the pass. Dozens of dead possums always littered the road during the journey over the hill as we called it. There were no speed cameras and most of the road was tar sealed.
On one occasion I abandoned my white car halfway up the zig zag during a snow storm because a snow chain slipped off the wheel, rupturing the brake oil pipe. Heavy snow covered the car that night. The next morning the road contractors clearing the pass completely demolished the side of my vehicle as they graded down the zig zag.Map[1] ContributorTony Kokshoorn
On one occasion I abandoned my white car halfway up the zig zag during a snow storm because a snow chain slipped off the wheel, rupturing the brake oil pipe. Heavy snow covered the car that night. The next morning the road contractors clearing the pass completely demolished the side of my vehicle as they graded down the zig zag.Map[1] ContributorTony Kokshoorn
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Date Created30th March 2023CommentsPhyllis Aberhart
I think it looks worse looking at those pictures than driving over it
Karen Blanchfield
I can get car sick just looking at those photos! Brilliant views of the road which of course we never saw from that angle, sitting inside a car. I remember having to double declutch to drop to first gear in the Morris 1100. Love the drive now, more than I did then!
Caroline Dunlop
Karen Blanchfield The thought of it is enough!
Jim Nolan
Karen Blanchfield Doubling the clutch, I still do it sometimes just for the memories and practice. Actually even with full synchromesh it still goes into 1st gear easier when you double the clutch, try it!
Karen Blanchfield
Jim Nolan auto car….?
Jim Nolan
Karen Blanchfield Being a coaster you already know this however quite a few don't. With an auto box, going down hill you can still change down a gear or 2 and that saves your brakes and gives you more control. We are about due for another coast trip, just love it over there and as you can tell by the surname there are a few connections and my Grandfather is in the Hari Hari cemetery.
Karen Blanchfield
Jim Nolan yes I recognise your surname and connections with the south. Whitebait too! I’ll manage a couple of days on the coast in May, a visit to sample my favourites at the bakehouse.
Donna Douglas
Dean Symons especially in the snow
Marie Poad
Have a lot of memory's of driving the zig zag. Not for the drivers of today.
Doreen Thomson
If you drove over this road you were considered an accomplished driver bearing in mind that 99% of cars were manual
Jim Nolan
Doreen Thomson Manuals taught us to change down to save the brakes. You can do the same with auto's but quite a few drivers don't seem to know that!
Ian Murch
Driven over that old road many times
R Stuart Nicholson
It looks worse from these aerial shots, where you can see the slip face and the steepness.
I drove that route many times in the 70’s and 80’s and you just took each corner,one at a time.
Looking at it now, I shudder and wonder what the geotechnical engineers were recommending … what were the risks we took compared to what is acceptable today.
At least Hawks Crag was solid rock!
Pete Ranson
It was a place you learnt to drive! Loved it. Real driving! no traction control or computer assisted driving, it was you against the mountain.
Rose Henham
Taken the fun out off the trip now new road is great though.
Hunter Morton
Always remember dad traveling from Arthur's pass to the railways Otira heated pool with too many in the cortina. We were collected by an army truck being towed up the pass. The army driver in front had spent some time at the Otira pub. He hit the gas not knowing the vehicle he was towing had hit our car. So scary being pushed close to the edge. Always had the shivers traveling over that road after that experience. So good to have the viaduct now.
Brenda Mann
Candys corner .... eek.
Covered in ice eek. But we just did it.
Thomas McDonnell
Not the easiest trip in a mk1 Zephyr with a slipping clutch
Janet Jamieson
Came down there in a ambulance with the brakes giving out near the top but we made it in one piece
Phyllis Aberhart
Janet Jamieson that wouldve been very scarey
Kathryn Cox
Janet Jamieson not a very nice experience..i remember a transfer with you Janet and we met a truck on a corner on the new piece of road by the Bealy...you were hard against the bank and he was almost like a banana across our front...lucky for us you were a really good driver.
Charmaine Smith
I remember traveling with Dad as a kid in the truck and looking out the window at the drop down the cliff
They used to have to drop a trailer at the bottom run 1 over and come back for the other as they weren't allowed to take 2 at a time
Gavin Menzies
Spent many an hour at Candys Bend waiting for slips/debris to be cleared, dads cars were Vanguards, Vauxhalls, Austin Westminster...all we wanted as kids was to get the f@%k out of Ch-Ch and get back home to our beloved Coast, every trip was an adventure
Maurice Dando
It was a good trip alright, I used to race over, either motorbike or V8, loved it. I was saddened when they put the via duct in.
Keri Mahauariki
I remember one year had the option of taking the train at Arthur’s decided to stay on bus with driver, what an experience that was!!!
Glad to get to the bottom one peice
Robert Donaldson
15 years old in those days were more responsibility in those days
Paper licence for life which turned to BS
Day I got my license my Dad said you are now judge by your actions as a adult
1970 I obtained my car licence. 1972 I joined the Army. Dad had to sign consent for me to serve overseas at 18 years of age. That year I was serving in Singapore. Ironic bench marks with age restrictions. Now know why they had a pub at the top of the hill and the bottom. Stop to calm the nerves
Sheryl Walker
I remember feeling very I’ll going through this
Marlene Jackson Perry
That pass was a bloody nightmare!!!!!
As a kid, HATED it!!!!
Arthur Dehn
My Morris Oxford rear wheels danced up and down on those horrible corrergations but I shot up on my Jawa m/ b
Arthur Dehn
Riding home to Moana i used to take the short cut across the railways Bridge at Jackson to Inchbone ( quite a scary ride )
Angie Quinn
Definitely a rite of passage driving over the gorge in those days
Gavin Aldridge
Great motorcycle road.
Ross Wylde
Many a time I went over it in one of dad's buses. It used to take an hour between Otira and Arthur's pass, a distance of about 20 odd km.
Robin Gibbens
My first trip over driving was also 1970 in an A40 ute that dad had bought of uncle Bill Gibbens, mum was my co pilot. Never forget it
Colin Taylor
Absolutely loved that drive. Did it so many times back in the later 70s and early 80s. I remember as a toddler we were towed through one of the fords by the MOW as a safety thing lol.
Charmaine Hands
I remember when I was 16 and just got my driver's license, we were heading to Christchurch from Hokitika, I asked dad if I could drive the family car a Valiant V8, and he said sure, then preceded to fall fast asleep in the passenger seat, my older sister in the back seat absolutely freaking out while I negotiated 'the dreaded pass' aye Sonja Barker
Lex Thomson
Drive a km Bedford loaded with spuds to the coast and bring back coal to chch
Denise Bradley
Wow
Denise Bradley
Canterbury to WestCoast in a TK Bedford probably July with snow graded to side of road which was ice. Had to use the snow on side of road for breaking then pull back on to the road before you got stuck. Great fun I tell you.
Murray Browne
Remember going over there in my father's Morris 8 in the 50s. My brother's and I had to get out and walk some of it as we didn't have enough power for some of the steeper sections. All unsealed then.
Wayne Nicholson
Having to reverse up in an old Ford V8 due to fuel starvation on a hot day !
David Carty
Drove that road quite a few times ,car and trucks,took your time and alls
Jill Leonard
Many trips done in the family Austin A40, car sickness in places impossible to pull over, mostly unsealed in the 50s, waterfalls across the road, my father's choice language if someone failed to give way on tight corners coming down!
Always spectacular scenery that I loved even as a child.
Seemed to take all day to make the trip from Hokitika to Christchurch.
David Carty
My son drove that road when he was a young fella ,not long had his license! It was still the old road.
Bored Cabin Fever GIF
Alan Mayne
I drove over there many times from when I started work at Ministry of Works to pay the road men. If one was on the zigzag we could not stop as if we did it was hard to get going again. we would stop further up where it wasn't so steep and he would have to walk up to us. Also walked over the pass from Arthurs Pass to Otira several times with the bible class group
Marilyn Finn
Memories. Our family drove that road regularly to Ch Ch & back.
Jon Glanville
My dad was a sales rep driving through there in the 70s. He said it was the norm for reps to keep their door open one click with hand on the handle ready to jump if need be lol
Richard Currie
We used to drive trucks and trailers over with hay4trips a week
Craig Taylor
Loved that drive... Once I was older and didn't get sick.
Or once I was driving it, was even better.
Jason Mather
That's the only road I've driven from both sides snow & all, the viaduct was made after i moved to the North Island so i have not driven on the viaduct yet.
Warren Beckett
Love the. Zigzag. Live in otira 73 to 81. Back there in 80. Then 90 .. even work driving snow ploug.. worked fixing road. Etc
But went work on viaduct Jan 97 tough place work with rain an snow. An bloody wind that drop temp down to min 25 some time
Connor Smith
Heather Newby can you still walk the entire Otira Zigzag even though nature has covered the whole thing
Trish Rennie
Hubby worked for MOW and drove the snow plough through the pass during winter….many a hairy tale told from those years. Plus the spreading of grit tested driver ability
Les Holmes Germanicus
I used to love ripping up there in the Honda City turbo. It was a highlight of the trip.
Jack Stewart
I was thinking about that road the other day, how our parents used to give us the freedom to drive over it not long after we had learnt to drive. They trusted us and we respected their decision.
Kerry Keating
Tom Hartill rode a road racing bike over it to set a new record for Christchurch to Hokitika.
Robyn Edwards
This was what it was like when I was growing up...bloody dangerous...
Karlene Jane Batchelor
Jayni Rose Batchelor and
Tryton Batchelor this is what the Arthur's Pass used to be prior to the Viaduct
Wayne Morris
I towed a Vauxhall Viva up the Zig-Zag with a '67 HD Holden, 1st gear all the way.
Sue Murdoch
Took a toll on many a fuel pump and radiator!
Frank Neame
You have to wonder how we ever drove over that it's scary when u see it like that
Mike Stevens
Ever try going up with two horses in the float? Back wheels would start slipping on the shingle. Most unnerving. Always carried spare undies.
Liz Aratema
Bo claims to have been over it frontwards - and backwards due to fuel vacuum pump wouldn’t feed the fuel to the motor - front candys to the top !
Graeme Jackson
In Rata bloom on clear day . Etching of the memory of days gone by.
Helen Green
Went over gorge many times. First time driving by myself - conditions - it was dark - if it hadn't been for the guidance of my fourteen year old son I wouldn't have made it!!
Andrew Hobbs
Andrew Grimes, bring back some memories mate ?
Koroheke Hemopo
Worked over in Hoki at the Dairy Factory ,,,,, headed back to CHCH ,,,,, 1st gear and top
PaulAnthony Teens
Going in a vw combi with your mother and Aunty saying the rosary
Kay Nichols
My first time me driving over the pass, it was very foggy and I was having an asthma attack. My now husband said if you can drive it in those conditions you can drive it in any condition.
Mark Stokes
Crossed it for the first time in ‘54. Mum and my brother had to get out and push the ‘50 ford prefect up the hill. Scary as hell, I thought that I would never see them again!
Trish Barry Andrews
Those were the days alright, loved that road eh
Fay Tomlinson
Trevor WYLDE
No fault of the buses either Ross. I remember going to and from boarding CBHS the 15 mins it took to go thru the rail tunnel
Ian N Leona Dixon
Remember training for Coast to Coast and running up the zigzag and passing cars much to their disgust!!!
Arthur Bass
Ian N Leona Dixon was that Lee or you ?
Charles Carson
Got caught on zig zag during 1996 earthquake . Very scary, especially when road disappeared under my left rear wheel. Thought I was a goner.
I think it looks worse looking at those pictures than driving over it
Karen Blanchfield
I can get car sick just looking at those photos! Brilliant views of the road which of course we never saw from that angle, sitting inside a car. I remember having to double declutch to drop to first gear in the Morris 1100. Love the drive now, more than I did then!
Caroline Dunlop
Karen Blanchfield The thought of it is enough!
Jim Nolan
Karen Blanchfield Doubling the clutch, I still do it sometimes just for the memories and practice. Actually even with full synchromesh it still goes into 1st gear easier when you double the clutch, try it!
Karen Blanchfield
Jim Nolan auto car….?
Jim Nolan
Karen Blanchfield Being a coaster you already know this however quite a few don't. With an auto box, going down hill you can still change down a gear or 2 and that saves your brakes and gives you more control. We are about due for another coast trip, just love it over there and as you can tell by the surname there are a few connections and my Grandfather is in the Hari Hari cemetery.
Karen Blanchfield
Jim Nolan yes I recognise your surname and connections with the south. Whitebait too! I’ll manage a couple of days on the coast in May, a visit to sample my favourites at the bakehouse.
Donna Douglas
Dean Symons especially in the snow
Marie Poad
Have a lot of memory's of driving the zig zag. Not for the drivers of today.
Doreen Thomson
If you drove over this road you were considered an accomplished driver bearing in mind that 99% of cars were manual
Jim Nolan
Doreen Thomson Manuals taught us to change down to save the brakes. You can do the same with auto's but quite a few drivers don't seem to know that!
Ian Murch
Driven over that old road many times
R Stuart Nicholson
It looks worse from these aerial shots, where you can see the slip face and the steepness.
I drove that route many times in the 70’s and 80’s and you just took each corner,one at a time.
Looking at it now, I shudder and wonder what the geotechnical engineers were recommending … what were the risks we took compared to what is acceptable today.
At least Hawks Crag was solid rock!
Pete Ranson
It was a place you learnt to drive! Loved it. Real driving! no traction control or computer assisted driving, it was you against the mountain.
Rose Henham
Taken the fun out off the trip now new road is great though.
Hunter Morton
Always remember dad traveling from Arthur's pass to the railways Otira heated pool with too many in the cortina. We were collected by an army truck being towed up the pass. The army driver in front had spent some time at the Otira pub. He hit the gas not knowing the vehicle he was towing had hit our car. So scary being pushed close to the edge. Always had the shivers traveling over that road after that experience. So good to have the viaduct now.
Brenda Mann
Candys corner .... eek.
Covered in ice eek. But we just did it.
Thomas McDonnell
Not the easiest trip in a mk1 Zephyr with a slipping clutch
Janet Jamieson
Came down there in a ambulance with the brakes giving out near the top but we made it in one piece
Phyllis Aberhart
Janet Jamieson that wouldve been very scarey
Kathryn Cox
Janet Jamieson not a very nice experience..i remember a transfer with you Janet and we met a truck on a corner on the new piece of road by the Bealy...you were hard against the bank and he was almost like a banana across our front...lucky for us you were a really good driver.
Charmaine Smith
I remember traveling with Dad as a kid in the truck and looking out the window at the drop down the cliff
They used to have to drop a trailer at the bottom run 1 over and come back for the other as they weren't allowed to take 2 at a time
Gavin Menzies
Spent many an hour at Candys Bend waiting for slips/debris to be cleared, dads cars were Vanguards, Vauxhalls, Austin Westminster...all we wanted as kids was to get the f@%k out of Ch-Ch and get back home to our beloved Coast, every trip was an adventure
Maurice Dando
It was a good trip alright, I used to race over, either motorbike or V8, loved it. I was saddened when they put the via duct in.
Keri Mahauariki
I remember one year had the option of taking the train at Arthur’s decided to stay on bus with driver, what an experience that was!!!
Glad to get to the bottom one peice
Robert Donaldson
15 years old in those days were more responsibility in those days
Paper licence for life which turned to BS
Day I got my license my Dad said you are now judge by your actions as a adult
1970 I obtained my car licence. 1972 I joined the Army. Dad had to sign consent for me to serve overseas at 18 years of age. That year I was serving in Singapore. Ironic bench marks with age restrictions. Now know why they had a pub at the top of the hill and the bottom. Stop to calm the nerves
Sheryl Walker
I remember feeling very I’ll going through this
Marlene Jackson Perry
That pass was a bloody nightmare!!!!!
As a kid, HATED it!!!!
Arthur Dehn
My Morris Oxford rear wheels danced up and down on those horrible corrergations but I shot up on my Jawa m/ b
Arthur Dehn
Riding home to Moana i used to take the short cut across the railways Bridge at Jackson to Inchbone ( quite a scary ride )
Angie Quinn
Definitely a rite of passage driving over the gorge in those days
Gavin Aldridge
Great motorcycle road.
Ross Wylde
Many a time I went over it in one of dad's buses. It used to take an hour between Otira and Arthur's pass, a distance of about 20 odd km.
Robin Gibbens
My first trip over driving was also 1970 in an A40 ute that dad had bought of uncle Bill Gibbens, mum was my co pilot. Never forget it
Colin Taylor
Absolutely loved that drive. Did it so many times back in the later 70s and early 80s. I remember as a toddler we were towed through one of the fords by the MOW as a safety thing lol.
Charmaine Hands
I remember when I was 16 and just got my driver's license, we were heading to Christchurch from Hokitika, I asked dad if I could drive the family car a Valiant V8, and he said sure, then preceded to fall fast asleep in the passenger seat, my older sister in the back seat absolutely freaking out while I negotiated 'the dreaded pass' aye Sonja Barker
Lex Thomson
Drive a km Bedford loaded with spuds to the coast and bring back coal to chch
Denise Bradley
Wow
Denise Bradley
Canterbury to WestCoast in a TK Bedford probably July with snow graded to side of road which was ice. Had to use the snow on side of road for breaking then pull back on to the road before you got stuck. Great fun I tell you.
Murray Browne
Remember going over there in my father's Morris 8 in the 50s. My brother's and I had to get out and walk some of it as we didn't have enough power for some of the steeper sections. All unsealed then.
Wayne Nicholson
Having to reverse up in an old Ford V8 due to fuel starvation on a hot day !
David Carty
Drove that road quite a few times ,car and trucks,took your time and alls
Jill Leonard
Many trips done in the family Austin A40, car sickness in places impossible to pull over, mostly unsealed in the 50s, waterfalls across the road, my father's choice language if someone failed to give way on tight corners coming down!
Always spectacular scenery that I loved even as a child.
Seemed to take all day to make the trip from Hokitika to Christchurch.
David Carty
My son drove that road when he was a young fella ,not long had his license! It was still the old road.
Bored Cabin Fever GIF
Alan Mayne
I drove over there many times from when I started work at Ministry of Works to pay the road men. If one was on the zigzag we could not stop as if we did it was hard to get going again. we would stop further up where it wasn't so steep and he would have to walk up to us. Also walked over the pass from Arthurs Pass to Otira several times with the bible class group
Marilyn Finn
Memories. Our family drove that road regularly to Ch Ch & back.
Jon Glanville
My dad was a sales rep driving through there in the 70s. He said it was the norm for reps to keep their door open one click with hand on the handle ready to jump if need be lol
Richard Currie
We used to drive trucks and trailers over with hay4trips a week
Craig Taylor
Loved that drive... Once I was older and didn't get sick.
Or once I was driving it, was even better.
Jason Mather
That's the only road I've driven from both sides snow & all, the viaduct was made after i moved to the North Island so i have not driven on the viaduct yet.
Warren Beckett
Love the. Zigzag. Live in otira 73 to 81. Back there in 80. Then 90 .. even work driving snow ploug.. worked fixing road. Etc
But went work on viaduct Jan 97 tough place work with rain an snow. An bloody wind that drop temp down to min 25 some time
Connor Smith
Heather Newby can you still walk the entire Otira Zigzag even though nature has covered the whole thing
Trish Rennie
Hubby worked for MOW and drove the snow plough through the pass during winter….many a hairy tale told from those years. Plus the spreading of grit tested driver ability
Les Holmes Germanicus
I used to love ripping up there in the Honda City turbo. It was a highlight of the trip.
Jack Stewart
I was thinking about that road the other day, how our parents used to give us the freedom to drive over it not long after we had learnt to drive. They trusted us and we respected their decision.
Kerry Keating
Tom Hartill rode a road racing bike over it to set a new record for Christchurch to Hokitika.
Robyn Edwards
This was what it was like when I was growing up...bloody dangerous...
Karlene Jane Batchelor
Jayni Rose Batchelor and
Tryton Batchelor this is what the Arthur's Pass used to be prior to the Viaduct
Wayne Morris
I towed a Vauxhall Viva up the Zig-Zag with a '67 HD Holden, 1st gear all the way.
Sue Murdoch
Took a toll on many a fuel pump and radiator!
Frank Neame
You have to wonder how we ever drove over that it's scary when u see it like that
Mike Stevens
Ever try going up with two horses in the float? Back wheels would start slipping on the shingle. Most unnerving. Always carried spare undies.
Liz Aratema
Bo claims to have been over it frontwards - and backwards due to fuel vacuum pump wouldn’t feed the fuel to the motor - front candys to the top !
Graeme Jackson
In Rata bloom on clear day . Etching of the memory of days gone by.
Helen Green
Went over gorge many times. First time driving by myself - conditions - it was dark - if it hadn't been for the guidance of my fourteen year old son I wouldn't have made it!!
Andrew Hobbs
Andrew Grimes, bring back some memories mate ?
Koroheke Hemopo
Worked over in Hoki at the Dairy Factory ,,,,, headed back to CHCH ,,,,, 1st gear and top
PaulAnthony Teens
Going in a vw combi with your mother and Aunty saying the rosary
Kay Nichols
My first time me driving over the pass, it was very foggy and I was having an asthma attack. My now husband said if you can drive it in those conditions you can drive it in any condition.
Mark Stokes
Crossed it for the first time in ‘54. Mum and my brother had to get out and push the ‘50 ford prefect up the hill. Scary as hell, I thought that I would never see them again!
Trish Barry Andrews
Those were the days alright, loved that road eh
Fay Tomlinson
Trevor WYLDE
No fault of the buses either Ross. I remember going to and from boarding CBHS the 15 mins it took to go thru the rail tunnel
Ian N Leona Dixon
Remember training for Coast to Coast and running up the zigzag and passing cars much to their disgust!!!
Arthur Bass
Ian N Leona Dixon was that Lee or you ?
Charles Carson
Got caught on zig zag during 1996 earthquake . Very scary, especially when road disappeared under my left rear wheel. Thought I was a goner.
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West Coast New Zealand History (3rd Apr 2023). ALBUM - ZIG ZAG, OTIRA GORGE - ARTHURS PASS.. In Website West Coast New Zealand History. Retrieved 1st Apr 2026 11:02, from https://westcoast.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/32149