Glentunnel

Glentunnel is a small village in the Selwyn District of the Canterbury region of New Zealand's South Island. It is officially recognised as a "populated area less than a town". The 2001 New Zealand Census of Population and Dwellings gave Glentunnel's population as 129. It is located on State Highway 77 and was served by the Whitecliffs Branch, a branch line railway, from the line's opening on 3 November 1875 through to its closure on 31 March 1962. Few remnants of the railway remain in the town, with the station's platform incorporated into the backyard of a private residence. Industrial activity such as lignite coal mining and the manufacture of pottery and bricks used to take place in the region around Glentunnel. This was the reason...