Hawks Crag, Buller River, Westport.

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Hawks Crag and the Buller River.
The main highway in and out of Westport skirts along the Buller River right from the source at Lake Rotoiti to the ocean at the town of Westport, the river gathers water and speed as it goes along, cutting its way through the rock walls of the Buller Gorge. At this Hawks Crag point there was nowhere to put a roadway when the early settlers were putting in a means of transporting stores and people and coal. The only possible way was to chip away the solid living rock to allow a coach and 4 horses to negotiate around this bend. They had plenty of coal miners capable of doing this tunneling work. The road here is still only just wide enough to allow a coach and four horses, it is low and narrow with traffic lights at either end for safety allowing only one way traffic at a time around this big bend. It is quite unique.
The Buller is a beautiful river that is used by kayakers and white water rafting, as well as for trout fishing.