Building a winter diversion route
The stark prospect of the timber on which the town was founded running out was what drove the construction of the Ohakune Mountain Road. Hugh...
Category : Heritage Trails
A road a long-time in the making
New roads in the 19th century meant new areas being opened up to pastoral farming and, sometimes, warfare, but the Desert Road offered neither. Hugh...
Heritage Trails: Skippers Road
Arguably the scariest if not the most dangerous roading in the country, Skippers Road, is as much an engineering as a scenic gem, as Hugh...
Heritage Trails: Building the Backbone
From military beginnings to tourist day-trip, the Napier-Taupo Road cuts across the backbone of the North Island. Hugh de Lacy checks out its colourful history....
Heritage Trails: Through mist and mystery
To the 19th century Tuhoe, a road through their beloved Urewera country spelt capitulation, which is why it was never completed until 1929. Hugh de...
The Auckland-to-Waikato Great South Road
This article first appeared in Contractor‘s December 2016 issue. The Auckland-to-Waikato Great South Road is arguably the most important in
New Zealand history. HUGH DE...
Saving Paekakariki Hill Road
An almost forgotten group of World War One tunnellers saved the Paekakariki Hill Road from closure, as HUGH DE LACY discovers. THOSE CANTANKEROUS heroes of...
Takaka Hill: The Marble Obstacle
To the arriving colonists at the top of the South Island, Takaka Hill represented a major obstacle between the cramped and land-hungry settlement of Nelson,...
The canal that wouldn’t die- Corinth
The Suez and Panama canals are celebrated as two of history’s most inspirational feats of engineering. But you could argue that for sheer dogged belief...
The Rimutaka Heritage Trail- starting with an abduction
Wellington’s land-locked harbour made a road over the Remutaka Hill vital for the young colony’s development. HUGH DE LACY tells how it got there. A...