The Hundalee Hills are located close to the borders of

Hurunui District Hurunui District is a territorial local government district within the Canterbury Region on the east coast of New Zealand's South Island, north of Christchurch. It stretches from the east coast to the Main Divide. Its land area is . Local gove ...

and Kaikoura District in

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the primate of t ...

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 ...

of New Zealand. Located 40 kilometres (24.85 mi) to the south of Kaikoura, Hundalee Hills are known largely for a notorious stretch of State Highway 1 between Kaikoura and

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 Rive ...

. The road winds sharply around the edge of several hills, as does the Conway River, which reaches the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the conti ...

close to the Hundalees. Within the Hundalee Hills is the rural locality of

Hundalee Hundalee is a rural locality in the Hurunui District of the Canterbury, New Zealand, Canterbury region of New Zealand's South Island. It straddles the Conway River, New Zealand, Conway River, the traditional boundary between Canterbury and Marl ...

. This was briefly a terminus of the Main North Line

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a p ...

that winds its way through the Hundalee Hills, and it was also the home of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

hero

Charles Upham Charles Hazlitt Upham, (21 September 1908 – 22 November 1994) was a New Zealand soldier who was awarded the Victoria Cross (VC) twice during the Second World War - for gallantry in Crete in May 1941, and in Egypt, in July 1942. He was the ...

after he returned from combat.

References

Kaikōura District Hurunui District Mountain ranges of Canterbury, New Zealand State Highway 1 (New Zealand) {{CanterburyNZ-geo-stub