Access

From the centre of Franz Josef, turn into Cowan Street and follow it to 250m to the end of the road . The start of the track is signposted at the road end.

Track

Pass the locked gate on the 4WD track and branch left at the junction with Callery Gorge Walk. You pass through dense forest and are received by the audible roar of the Tatare River, just before the 10 minute ascent to the tunnel entrance.

To explore the tunnels you will get wet feet. And the water is icy cold. You must have a torch, as the tunnel is so long there is a section in the middle where you cannot see light at either end. Even the glow-worms don’t know if it’s day or night. Don’t be fooled by the echo of your watery footsteps 5 paces behind you. They are not the sound of a ghostly zombie. Keep your imagination in check before you exit at some elaborate fluming. You can feel the wind and hear the echo of the river while in the tunnel.

Return through the tunnel and descend via the same track.

European History

In 1897, the Waiho Sluicing Company constructed an elaborate system of watercourses to bring pressurised water to the sluicing guns at the gravel faces of the lower river. They pierced, with exactitude, a 500 m long tunnel, connected to a 3.2 km piping network and open water race to divert the Tatare River. Despite the high endeavour, the operation closed down soon after.

Several decades later in the 1930s, The Graham Brothers who owned the Glacier Hotel in Franz Josef, hit upon the idea of using the existing water courses to construct the infrastructure for a hydro electric scheme. The Glacier Hotel would take first dibs on the power, while the rest would be given to the town for free.

70 m penstocks and a powerhouse with a 165kW turbine cranked out the power. And it was during the building of the powerhouse that the Tatare River Waltz took place. The story is told in detail on the information board and it’s too good to just replicate here. You’ll have to go and read it yourself.

A slip destroyed the building in 1982.