Douglas is a lightly populated locality [1] in the southern Canterbury region of New Zealand's South Island. It is situated inland southwest of Waimate, the largest town in the region.
Canterbury is a region of New Zealand, located in the central-eastern South Island. The region covers an area of 44,508 square kilometres (17,185 sq mi), and is home to a population of 624,000.
The South Island, also officially named Te Waipounamu, is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area; the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman Sea, and to the south and east by the Pacific Ocean. The South Island covers 150,437 square kilometres (58,084 sq mi), making it the world's 12th-largest island. It has a temperate climate.
Waimate is a town in Canterbury, New Zealand. It is situated just inland from the eastern coast of the South Island. The town is reached via a short detour west when travelling on State Highway One, the main North/South road. Waimate is 45.7 km south of Timaru, Canterbury's second city, and 20 km north of the Waitaki River, which forms the border between Canterbury and the Otago province to the south.
It was settled in 1911, and has a population of 20 people. [2]
The nearest state highway, State Highway 82, passes to the east of Douglas through nearby Waihao Downs. Waihao Downs was also once the terminus of the nearest railway to Douglas, the Waimate Branch, from 4 April 1884 until 11 December 1953. [3] The nearest railway is now the Main South Line near the coast.
The New Zealand state highway network is the major national highway network in New Zealand. Nearly 100 roads in the North and South Islands are state highways. All state highways are administered by the NZ Transport Agency.
State Highway 82 (SH 82) is a minor east-west South Island state highway in South Canterbury connecting SH 1 at the locality of Hook to SH 83 at the settlement of Kurow in the Waitaki Valley via the major town of Waimate. It is a two lane single carriageway.
The Waimate Branch was a branch line railway built in southern Canterbury, New Zealand to link the Main South Line with the town of Waimate, the centre of the surrounding rural area. It opened in 1877 and operated until 1966; for some of this time, it included an extension to Waihao Downs that was known as the Waimate Gorge Branch or Waihao Downs Branch. When the line closed, Waimate received the dubious distinction of being New Zealand's first major town to lose its railway line.
