We decided to leave Karamea a little early on our last day so we could make a few stops along the way. Our first destination was Chasm Creek, just outside the town of Seddonville. Despite the skies looking rather ominous, we decided to risk a quick hike along Chasm Creek.
The track actually took us along a disused railway that clung to the river bank. As we walked along the old railway we looked over the side of the steep cliff and spotted the remains of some old coal carts that had gone over the edge.
The railway was started in 1885 to service the Mokihinui Coal Company’s mine further up the valley. The rails and locomotive arrived via boat at the nearby wharf which was constructed to allow the company steamer, SS Lawrence to take the coal from the rail line further afield.
By the late 1880s the potential of the coal fields in this area was recognised by the government and they supported the extension of the railway line to tie into the coastal railway that ran down to Westport. The project must have been quite a feat of engineering as our walk took us through a steep cutting before coming to a long, slightly curved tunnel.
The mines in this area continued to operate through numerous ownership changes and it wasn’t until the early 1980s that this line finally closed. Although the rails and sleepers were removed almost immediately, it is still possible to see some of the bridges that remain.
From Chasm Creek we continued back south along the coast towards Lewis Pass that would take us over the mountains and back to Christchurch. We stopped at the small town of Mokihinui at the mouth of Chasm Creek.
On the beach here are the remains of the SS Lawrence, the steamer that belonged to the Mokihinui Coal company. In April 1891 the boat floundered on the bar here and the remains can still be seen at low tide.
After watching the waves reveal parts of the steamer, we decided that we had pushed our luck with the weather enough and that it was time to head home to get ready for the week at work.