Arthur's Pass

Arthur's Pass (el. 920 m.) is a mountain pass in the Southern Alps of the South Island of New Zealand. It marks part of the boundary between the West Coast and Canterbury regions, 140 km from Christchurch and 95 km from Greymouth. The pass lies in a saddle between the valleys of the Otira River, a tributary of the Taramakau, in the west and the Bealey River in the east. Arthur's Pass lies on the border of the Selwyn and Westland districts. A hamlet of the same name (Arthur's Pass) is located about 5 km south of the mountain pass. The pass is named after Sir Arthur Dudley Dobson (1841–1934), who led the first party of Europeans across the pass in 1864. He had been informed of the presence of a pass, which had been used occasionally by...