The 50th anniversary of the opening of the Haast road will be celebrated on November 5 with the launch of a new book and a DVD of archived images from the 1950s.
When asked to name the one thing that impressed him most while writing a history of the Haast road, Waikanae writer Dave Grantham could not go past the word "isolation".
"The word that comes to mind is isolation, waiting for parts to come in. It wasn't quite so bad once they had aircraft, from 1934 when the plane service started. But, before that, people just died.
"Peritonitis was a big thing, apparently. People would be carted over the Paringa Cattle Track to hospital," he said in an interview.
Mr Grantham, an office manager for a television company, had previously written a family history and his first book came upon him at fairly short notice.
He had been taking the oral history of former road-worker Brian McCarthy (a man in his 80s), of Hokitika, for a couple of years when, in June, Mr McCarthy invited him to write a book.
Mr McCarthy used to work for Cummings, one of three main contractors who worked alongside the Ministry of Works teams.
Cummings blasted three bluffs - Big Bluff, Thomas Bluff and 16 Mile Bluff - while the Douglas and Clarke bluffs were blasted by Contract Cultivation, which also did the road from the pass down to Pleasant Flat.
A third contractor, Commonwealth Construction, blasted Halfway Bluff.
Mr Grantham said he limited his book to a general overview of the road-building period between Haast and Makarora in the 1950s, because not much had been written about that era.
He had been invited to include the section of road between Haast and Paringa, which opened in 1965 and completed the South Island tourist loop, but he felt that would lengthen his project.
Mr Grantham has obtained material from many other sources, including his father-in-law, Jack Chapman (83), who also worked for Cummings, and Tas Smith (71), who worked for his late father Jock Smith's company, Contract Cultivation.
While Mr Grantham has been working on his book, Mr Smith has been busy finalising the DVD of old photos and films.
Mr Smith sold Contract Cultivation to Whitestone several years ago and is now semi-retired on a farm block near Lake Waihola.
His parents, Jock and Clare, were originally from Timaru and founded the company in the 1920s.
Mr Smith joined in 1957 as an 18-year-old Timaru Boys High School leaver and worked on the Haast road.
"It was certainly the last of the pioneering work in the country. Probably the more interesting work that I've done. I've worked on several projects but that one stood out ... There were no cabs, no heaters; we worked seven days a week in rain, snow or hail. On a really bad day, you probably knocked off a bit early but most days it was 10 hours a day. There was little else to do," he recalls.
The men wore oilskins to protect them from the elements.
Once they had got around Clarke Bluff, they were allowed to go hunting, fishing and whitebaiting in their spare time.
Mr Smith took all the coloured slides while the late Ken Nichols, a former Contract Cultivation surveyor and assistant manager, made the films.
Mr Smith attended the opening celebration in 1960, as well as the Paringa opening in 1965, and a function at Makarora in the 1990s to mark the laying of the last piece of tarseal.
"I've been to all those, so I can't miss this one," he said.
• A Road Through the Pass: Roadmaking Haast to Makarora, by David Grantham, is available from: Dave Grantham, 12 Nimmo Ave West, Waikanae 5036.
email: haastroad@gmail.com
