With just 4.5 hours travelling, this stunning trail joins the violent wind swept Tasman Sea and the vast equally active Pacific Ocean.

Features
This famous highway passes over the vast Canterbury Farm Plains and through the almost impenetrable Southern Alps. From the comfort of our coach we encounter, close up, many spectacular alpine wonders, ever changing with the violence of the eroding forces of nature. more

Every turn offers a new different wonderment.  There are wonderful karst lands, snow fields, farms, rain forests, alpine settlement, old gold towns and Arthurs Pass National Park,  numerous mountain rivers, waterfalls, glacier valleys, gorges and the intercontinental fault-line  with many others.

Studies
We can learn about the many engineering challenges to build the highway, the dynamic geographic upheavals, the accelerated erosion processes and the social pressures that drove the building of this amazing achievement. more

History
They thought the economic survival of Christchurch relied on the building of this amazing trail. The other side had the wealth and income needed to build their community. Only an efficient road would bring the wealth from the west to the east.  Its story is of its development is simply sensational.

Your KANES guide help you fully see the efforts the hardships and the failures involved with this massive undertaking of the times.

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