Porters Pass | |
---|---|
Elevation | 939 m (3,081 ft) |
Traversed by | State Highway 73 |
Location | New Zealand |
Range | Southern Alps |
Coordinates | 43°17′48″S171°44′31″E / 43.29667°S 171.74194°E |
Porters Pass (elevation 939 metres) is a mountain pass in the Canterbury region of New Zealand's South Island.
It is near Lake Lyndon and is located within Korowai/Torlesse Tussocklands Park. State Highway 73 travels through the pass on its route from Springfield to Cass, and it is the last mountain pass on the route eastwards from Westland to Christchurch. It is also the third-highest point on the South Island's state highway network, after the Lindis Pass and the Milford Road (though it is just one metre lower). Although Arthur's Pass is better known, Porters Pass is a few metres higher, and it affords views of the Canterbury Plains. The Porter brothers, who were farming nearby, named the pass in 1858. [1]
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Lake Lyndon is a small lake in the Canterbury region of New Zealand's South Island. It is located near Porters Pass on State Highway 73 after Springfield heading into the Southern Alps. The lake regularly freezes in winter due to its elevation and location on the outer border of the Southern Alps.
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Burkes Pass is a mountain pass and at its base, a small town on State Highway 8 at the entrance to the Mackenzie Country in South Canterbury, New Zealand. It is named after Michael John Burke, a graduate of Trinity College Dublin, who drove a team of bullocks through the passageway which leads up into the Mackenzie Country in 1855. This was an alternative route to the Mackenzie Pass, which the notorious alleged sheep stealer, James Mckenzie, had used to take his sheep into the Otago goldfields. Burkes Pass separates the Two Thumb Range to the north from the Rollesby and Albury ranges to the south, and sits at an altitude of 709 metres (2,326 ft). A memorial to Burke stands close to the pass's saddle.
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Mount Rolleston (2,271 m) is a prominent peak in Arthur's Pass National Park in the South Island of New Zealand. It was named by the surveyor Arthur Dudley Dobson in 1864, who observed the peak while searching for a route through the Southern Alps to the West Coast gold fields. The name honours the then Superintendent of the Canterbury Province, William Rolleston.
The Kowai River is a river in the Canterbury region of New Zealand. It rises on the southern flanks of the Torlesse Range and travels south, emerging from the foothills of the Southern Alps near Springfield. The river turns east across the upper Canterbury Plains before joining the Waimakariri River. State Highway 73 follows the river as it climbs towards Porters Pass.
Lake Tennyson is a glacial high-country lake in Canterbury, New Zealand. The first European settler to see the lake was Frederick Weld in 1853, who also named it. The headwaters of the Waiau Toa / Clarence River are just to the north, and the river flows through Lake Tennyson.
Maoricicada cassiope, also known as the screaming cicada, is a species of insect that is endemic to New Zealand. This species was first described by George Hudson in 1891. Maoricicada cassiope can be found in mountainous regions of the North and upper South Island.
Korowai / Torlesse Tussocklands Park is a protected area in Canterbury, New Zealand. Covering around 21,000 hectares, it is located on both sides of State Highway 73, from east of Porters Pass to south of Castle Hill Village.