The Remutaka Hill Road

The Remutaka Hill road is a narrow and winding 14km stretch of state highway, north of Wellington that snakes its way from Upper Hutt, over Remutaka Hill to the Wairapapa. Now, I can tell you that when you find yourself stuck on the Remutaka Road, in a very long line of traffic that isn’t moving, you have lots of time to ponder. So, that’s just what I did and within the great many things that crossed my mind, one question I kept coming back to. Who was the first person to drive over this road? That question ruminated in my mind for quite some time and while I didn’t discover the answer, I did find out the interesting tale of the Greytown to Wellington train from September 1880.

It seems that on the 11th September the train left Greytown at 8:30am bound for Wellington city. After stopping at Cross Creek where a second locomotive was added for preceding hill climb, the train set off over the Remutaka Hill. All was going well until about 1200m from the summit at a point called Siberia Curve when suddenly, a massive gust of wind hit the train. Estimated at nearly 200km/hour, the fierce wind swept three carriages off the tracks into the gully below, killing four people and leaving debris scattered across the hillside. Fortunately, following the accident the brake van remained gripped to the track enabling the rear brakesman to uncouple the van and coast back down the hill to Cross Creek to get help.