Sergeants Hill | |
|---|---|
  Sergeants Hill | |
| Coordinates: 41°45′46″S171°39′7″E / 41.76278°S 171.65194°E Coordinates: 41°45′46″S171°39′7″E / 41.76278°S 171.65194°E | |
| Country | New Zealand |
| Region | West Coast |
| District | Buller District |
Sergeants Hill is a lightly populated locality [1] in the West Coast region of New Zealand's South Island. It is situated in a rural setting on the eastern outskirts of Westport in the Buller District.
The West Coast is a region of New Zealand on the west coast of the South Island that is administered by the West Coast Regional Council. It comprises the territorial authorities of Buller District, Grey District and Westland District. The principal towns are Westport, Greymouth, and Hokitika. The region is one of the more remote and most sparsely populated areas of the country.
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.
Westport is a town in the West Coast region of the South Island of New Zealand. It is on the northern bank and at the mouth of the Buller River, close by the prominent headland of Cape Foulwind. It is connected via State Highway 6 with Greymouth, 100 kilometres (62 mi) to the south, and with Nelson 222 kilometres (138 mi) in the northeast, via the Buller Gorge.
State Highway 67 and a branch line of the Stillwater - Westport railway both pass through Sergeants Hill. The railway is part of the first line built in the Buller District; it opened on 31 December 1875 and linked Westport with Fairdown. The line subsequently grew into the Seddonville Branch and was opened through to the Seddonville terminus on 23 February 1895. Passenger services through Sergeants Hill, which were always mixed trains, were cancelled from 14 October 1946, and on 3 May 1981, the line was closed beyond Ngakawau. Its sole traffic is now coal exported via the port of Lyttelton. [2]
State Highway 67 is a New Zealand state highway located in the northern parts of the South Island of New Zealand. It is 51.2 km long and connects State Highway 6 with the settlement of Mokihinui. It used to be 96 kilometres long and ran the entire length of the road to Karamea. The highway and its spur serves the large West Coast town of Westport and lies entirely within the Buller District.
A branch line is a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line. David Blyth Hanna, the first president of the Canadian National Railway, said that although most branch lines cannot pay for themselves, they are essential to make main lines pay.
The Seddonville Branch, later truncated as the Ngakawau Branch, is a branch line railway in the West Coast region of New Zealand's South Island. Construction began in 1874 and it reached its terminus at the Mokihinui Mine just beyond Seddonville in 1895. In 1981 it was closed past Ngakawau and effectively became an extension of the Stillwater–Westport Line, since formalised as the Stillwater Ngakawau Line.
