Qualla: Lewis Pass

Lewis Pass: Introduction

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Krzysztof Golik, CC BY-SA 4.0. For centuries before any European set foot in the Southern Alps, Ngai Tahu Maori walked a route over the mountains carrying pounamu - greenstone, jade, the most prized material in Polynesian New Zealand. The stone came from the rivers of the West Coast, and the path that carried it east crossed a saddle at 907 meters between the Maruia River valley and the headwaters of the Lewis River. When surveyor Henry Lewis and his colleague Christopher Maling became the first Europeans to document the pass in April 1860, they were following a trade route already old. The pass took Lewis's name, but the footprints in the ground belonged to generations of Maori traders who had walked it long before.

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Image: Krzysztof Golik | CC BY-SA 4.0

Lewis Pass: The Greenstone Road

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bart ryker, CC BY-SA 4.0. Pounamu was more than decoration. In Maori culture, greenstone carried spiritual authority - it was used for weapons, tools, and ornaments that marked rank and connection to the land. The West Coast rivers where it was found lay on the far side of the Southern Alps from the Cante...

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Image: Bart ryker | CC BY-SA 4.0

Lewis Pass: Surveyors and Stagecoaches

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Pseudopanax at English Wikipedia, CC BY 4.0. Henry Lewis was working for the Nelson Provincial Survey Department when he and Christopher Maling crossed the pass in 1860. Their documentation opened the route to European use, though it would be decades before a proper road followed. State Highway 7 now traverses the pass, but...

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Image: Pseudopanax at English Wikipedia | CC BY 4.0

Lewis Pass: Cathedral of Beech

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Pseudopanax at English Wikipedia, Public domain. What distinguishes Lewis Pass from the other main alpine crossings is its forest. The highway passes through extensive stands of unmodified native beech - Nothofagus species that have grown here since before human settlement. Unlike much of lowland New Zealand, where logging and ...

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Image: Pseudopanax at English Wikipedia | Public domain

Lewis Pass: The Quiet Crossing

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Krzysztof Golik, CC BY-SA 4.0. Lewis Pass lacks the drama of Arthur's Pass and the coastal grandeur of Haast Pass, and that is precisely its appeal. At 907 meters, it sits between the two in elevation - slightly lower than Arthur's Pass, higher than Haast. The small spa settlement of Maruia Springs lies just o...

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Image: Krzysztof Golik | CC BY-SA 4.0