Murchison Area Guide
The small settlement of Murchison lies 131 kilometres south west of Nelson, surrounded by bush covered mountains, Mt Owen, the setting for Dimrill Dale in the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, looming to the north.
Murchison is the southernmost town in the Nelson-Tasman region, but its landscape of rugged escarpments and bush clad ranges owes more to the wild landscapes of the West Coast than to the beaches and bays of Nelson. The Buller and Matakitaki Rivers meet here, making it a great place for white water rafting, jet boating and kayaking, as well as for hunting and trout fishing, and the time-honoured pursuit of gold prospecting.
The privately-owned Buller Gorge Swingbridge offers a good opportunity to get photos of the mighty Buller River and the striking pink granite which lines the gorge. On the far side of the river, there is a short loop walk to the White's Creek fault line, where the land rose 4.5 metres in the 1929 Murchison earthquake, one of New Zealand's worst quakes. For a wild trip back across the river, ride the 160-metre-long high-speed Comet Line flying fox.
Murchison is a traditional place to stop for travellers en route to other destinations. From here, roads lead north to Nelson, east to Blenheim, west to Westport, or south east to Christchurch over the Lewis Pass.