State Highway 65 (also known as the Shenandoah Highway) is a New Zealand

state highway A state highway, state road, or state route (and the equivalent provincial highway, provincial road, or provincial route) is usually a road that is either ''numbered'' or ''maintained'' by a sub-national state or province. A road numbered by a ...

in the

South Island The South Island, also officially named , 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 ...

. It is 71 km long and runs south to north down the Maruia river valley from SH 7 at

Springs Junction Springs Junction is a small settlement and road junction in the West Coast region of New Zealand. It lies at the junction of and State Highway 65 (the Shenandoah Highway), east of Reefton, on the main route between Christchurch and the Nelson, ...

, 15 km west of the main divide at the Lewis Pass, to SH 6 in the Buller Gorge, 11 km west of Murchison. It forms part of the most direct route between

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...

and

Nelson Nelson may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Nelson'' (1918 film), a historical film directed by Maurice Elvey * ''Nelson'' (1926 film), a historical film directed by Walter Summers * ''Nelson'' (opera), an opera by Lennox Berkeley to a lib ...

. It takes its name from a small settlement toward its northern end. The road is sealed and two-lane, with some single-lane bridges. The surrounding country is used for pastoral farming (beef and dairy) with some forestry on the surrounding hills. Springs Junction is the only locality with fuel or food along the route while

Maruia Maruia is a locality in the West Coast region of New Zealand. The Shenandoah Highway (State Highway 65) passes through it. Murchison is 65 km north, the Lewis Pass is 39 km to the south-east, and Reefton is 63 km west by road. The ...

is the largest settlement along the route.

Maruia Falls, a 5-m waterfall near the road, did not exist prior to the

1929 Murchison earthquake The 1929 Murchison earthquake occurred at 10:17 am on 17 June. It struck the Murchison region of the South Island, with an estimated magnitude of 7.3, and was felt throughout New Zealand. There were 17 deaths, mostly as a result of landsli ...

(

magnitude Magnitude may refer to: Mathematics *Euclidean vector, a quantity defined by both its magnitude and its direction *Magnitude (mathematics), the relative size of an object *Norm (mathematics), a term for the size or length of a vector *Order of ...

7.8).

References

External links

New Zealand Transport Agency
65 {{NewZealand-road-stub

See also

References

External links