Kaimai Ranges

From Free net encyclopedia

The Kaimai Range is a mountain range located in the North Island of New Zealand. They can be seen as a continuation southwards of the hills of the Coromandel Peninsula, and separate the Waikato in the west from the Bay of Plenty in the east. The range is rough, and only two roads pass through it: State Highway 29 south from Tauranga to Hamilton, and State Highway 2 which runs across the northern end of the range through the notoriously winding Karangahake Gorge.

The Kaimai Railway Tunnel runs for nearly nine kilometres under the ranges, making it the longest tunnel in New Zealand. Construction of the tunnel started from both sides of the range in 1969, they finally met up in 1976 and the tunnel opened to traffic on 12 September 1978.

Just after 9am on July 4, 1963 the DC-3 Skyliner ZK-AYZ Hastings crashed into the ranges during a flight from Whenuapai Airport, Auckland to Tauranga. All 25 aboard the flight died, making it the worst air disaster in mainland New Zealand.

The Kaimai range is the result of a fault that uplifted what was primarily andesitic rocks from long extinct volcanoes. This fault has not been active for about 140 000 years and started more than a million years ago.