GO NZ: Down South – Bruce Ansley explores the alpine fault in earthquake country

Meeting point: Tectonic plates collide in an exciting way at Gwet Creek. Pictures / Tours of Alpine Mistakes

In an edited excerpt from his new book Down South, Bruce Ansley puts his life on the line and follows the Alpine Rift

The Alpine Rift runs northeast from the northern side of the entrance to Milford Sound, across the mountains behind Martins Bay, along the coast down the Southern Alps to Hokitika, and its path is marked by cliffs that in winter seem to have drawn snow. With a brush. Turning inland, the Alpine fault extends to a point near the Lewis Pass, travels north and then turns into four major faults that extend to the east coast. This set of fault lines on the map looks like a bed of snakes that, when clicked, turn deadly. It’s moving at 38 mm a year, which is what a seismologist considers as the speed of a Ferrari Testarossa on a test track. This makes them extremely dangerous.

The last time an alpine fault occurred was precarious in 1717 or so, and before that, in descending order, 1620, 1430, and 1100. Those dates were changing as scientists recalculate, but in terms of simple math, they mean New Zealand Owed something very serious, okay, now. Seismologists expect the big one to dwarf all opening actions.

I decided to take a closer look at those killer network acts.

Quake Country: the treacherous calm of an alpine rift reflected in Lake Matheson. Photo / Gerhard Zwerger Schöner, Getty Images

The Wairau Fault runs along the Wairau Valley from Renwick near Blenheim to Nelson Lakes. I traveled south from Cloudy Bay, my fingers crossed. I have withstood thousands of earthquakes in Christchurch and I have no confidence in any bean count that they keep. The road through the canyon was torn apart by diverted traffic from the coastal road, and it was bumpy and lonely. The Wairau Valley has been the center of civilization here, the school, the memorial hall, the church, the fire station, the golf course, and the pub that has served travelers for more than a century and a half. I was traveling early in the morning, and the pub was closed.

This is how the city was, it seems. Very little happens here, and due to its dangerous location, the locals love it that way. When Main Street got a pedestrian crosswalk a few years ago, the story made newspapers.

After a fault line for a hundred kilometers, I reached Lake Rotuiti, a perfect little lake sandwiched between the mountains with Saint Arnaud at the head. I thought Saint-Arnaud was near the fault line. I was wrong. In fact, like Franz Joseph in the far south, St Arnaud actually straddles the fault line, perhaps one of the reasons it is New Zealand’s least popular Alpine resort.

Tectonic: Wairau Valley extends over both tectonic plates. Photos / Nizar Ibb, Getty Images

Not only will a strong earthquake cut through this impoverished and cramped road, it will cut every road surrounding it and cause landslides that will likely raise the lake itself, submerge the shoreline and possibly the city, and send a wall of water into the Buller River. A river a few kilometers north of Murchison I walked across the Matere Valley to Lake Matere, which I had never heard of before, let alone. The walk was gentle, considering the earthquake-torn country around it. He took me across the beech forest to a lovely little hut on the edge of the lake, where I sat on the veranda and contemplated the still waters below, the mountains and peace. The stunning scenery came courtesy of the Alpine Rift. Everywhere were the scars of rockslides and landslides, one of which caused the formation of the lake itself.

Nobody needs any convincing about earthquakes in Murchison. On June 17, 2019, the city remembered the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck at 10.17 a.m. exactly 90 years ago. Seventeen people were killed, including 14 in landslides. It was New Zealand’s third worst tragedy, after Napier and Christchurch.

Shook: The Hampden Hotel in Murchison, and the site of the 1929 New Zealand earthquake.Photo / David Wall, Getty Images

Fewer than 500 people now live in Murchison. To me, after more than half a century of acquaintance with the city, it doesn’t seem like it has changed much. The old Hampden Hotel (Hampden was the original name of the city when it was founded after the gold rush) still stands on its corner, and its gorgeous terraces are as close to pristine as the old pubs can get. The old stables, St. Paul’s Church, the Picture Theater, the Council Rooms, and the Post Office still exist, even if their uses have changed slightly. The city still has the best junk store on the South Island, and its general store, Hodgson’s, might have been a museum piece if not very helpful. The French pastry shop hinted at another life. So did the court that once presided over in New Zealand and possibly the world’s first suicide bombing.

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The monuments of the 1929 earthquake were everywhere: slides, rocks, lakes, mountains cut to pieces, landscapes torn apart. I walked a path in the valley of the Matakitake River near town. It appeared at the bottom of a huge slip caused by the earthquake. As you progressed to the top, the terrain became more sculptural: gigantic masses of rock that were smooth and straight as if cut by some celestial stone and crafted as arches, rectangular stone pillars, capitals, slab stones, columns, blocks, and shapes organized in a state of chaos, rock city Destroyed in perfect shapes set beside cliffs that seem to be carved from the landscape.

I took the route west across the Maroya River, past the old town of Lille, once the site of one of the largest gold fields in the country, bypassing the Buller River to the Inangoa Junction. It is called an intersection because the railroad line from the north, the legendary Nelson Line, was supposed to meet the West Stillwater Line of Westport here. Nelson’s streak never ended, and it’s still a controversial topic.

On May 24, 1968, at 5.24 am, an earthquake struck the region. It was rated X on the Mercalli scale, which means it was very devastating; The 2011 Christchurch earthquake was only the sixth.

At fault: The visitor places their finger at the point where the tectonic plates divide. Photos / Supplied, Alpine Bug Tours

Then Inangahua had three districts: Inangahua Town, Inangahua Junction and Inangahua Landing beside the river. The junction was the hardest hit. The old town hotel was destroyed by a slip that pushed the houses off their foundations and destroyed the buildings. An extensive landslide shut down the mighty Buller River, creating such a lake that the authorities feared would erupt and inundate both Inangahua and Westport. Both cities were evacuated and not many returned to Inangahua.

When I visited, nothing was moving in Inangahua. Of the 144 people who were reputed to still live here, there was no sign. The cafe was closed. The “Historic Lille” show in the museum, the Old Town Hall, has closed. The abandoned church was for sale. The gardens were looked after and (some) homes painted, but there was no sign of gardeners or any kind of citizen.

I drove through Reefton to Greymouth and then south, and stopped at Whataroa.

I wanted to go to a place called Gaunt Creek. This place is so unique in the world that you can actually see the fault line, see the two tectonic plates compressing together, and the Australian plate pushing the Pacific plate. Imagine tremendous forces at work, turning the earth’s crust, two colossal bodies shooting against each other.

Gaunt Creek’s contribution to the geological collection is the fact that slipping elsewhere exposed the error. At Gaunt Creek, you can stand foot on each tectonic plate so that it stretches between the two worlds, in the hope, of course, that the Big One does not choose that exact moment to strike lest your stance becomes a little wider than is physically desirable.

Four centimeters a year: The Gunt Creek fault line swallows a survey station. Photos / Supplied, Alpine Bug Tours

The site is on a ranch, so on this cold day, I went to Watarwa, hopped into a green and gracious minivan with the driver, Elizabeth, and her two children, Victoria and Archer, passed by an oddly named feature, Ralphs Knob, and headed to the lovely namedangitowna valley. We drove along the brown canyon bed, the dense West Coast bush squeezing the foothills, and then we drove along Gaunt Creek, which was not lean at all, really, just a stream cutting through layers of ice gravel.

I studied the fault line from the other side of the creek, which caused a slight rise that day due to the rainfall during the night. It was a wound from a little green calamity, or rift rock, against a steep line of icy brown pebbles in a gray landscape, and it’s the kind of thing that, if you didn’t know its importance, you might have looked at it, wondered for a moment or two and moved on. However, this was the collision point between two great plates, where anyone, not only a geologist, or a scientist of any kind, but any simple atmosphere could actually see the cause of all the fuss, until they felt the powers.

Heaven and a few geologists knew just how this place would be in a good jolt. Gaunt Creek has been this way, to some extent, since the last massive earthquake in 1717. It is time for another explosion, and the probes here may at least send notice, and when disaster comes, provide the opportunity to study the mechanisms of the earthquake from the inside, learn how the fault works And about the arrival of the monster, rather than just measuring the consequences.

This was one of the most exciting places in the world for the seismologist. I walked across the bell while less than my feet were millions of years of transcontinental drift at work. However, the situation was silent here and everything seemed very peaceful and innocent. We drove over the fault line, which I now knew was sinking down at a 45-degree angle.

Down South by Bruce Ansley, published by HarperCollins New Zealand, is now for sale.

Alpine Fault Tours take visitors to the Whataroa fault line. See alpinefaulttours.co.nz for more information.

For more New Zealand travel ideas and inspiration, head to newzealand.com

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