Lake Coleridge Lodge, High Country Retreat - Canterbury's best High Country Hospitality Venue

Welcome to our Historical Walk

Starting at the Lodge, Walk out to the gate , turn left at the dry stone wall.

This wall was built by Robert Orchard a local resident in the year 2000. The stone was collected from Middle Rock.

Walk down to the bottom of the hill, the wooden building on the left is the

1. Power Station Store-used to house all the machinery spares. Dances were held here during the construction days. Across the road is the,

2. Post Office built in 1949. In the mid 50's it was the scene of an attempted safe Robbery. All three of the robbers were apprehended, either by the police or local residents, during an all night man hunt. This post office is still in use today by local residents. Through the trees on the right is a privately owned cottage

3. If you walk to the right of the cottage you will come across a meadow. This was used for camping and a picnic area. If you walk around the back of the Cottage grounds you will find a track through the trees. (Watch your step walking down here) Follow this out to Kowhai Drive and turn left and walk back toward the Buildings on the left. Walk between these buildings and there is a cute wee walkway over a stone bridge up through to the post office again. Walk on out past the Post Office and over the bridge to the left

4. Is a walk-way with Barrie bars at the entrance. It can be steep for some but it is a lovely spot, it comes out onto the "S bend" Cross the road and walk up the next walk-way through the trees to the clearing. Here you will find the

5. Hall which was built in 1939 and sports a huge open fire. This hall as you will imagine held many gatherings for movies, dancing and the usual get-together. The projectionists room still exists today. To the right of the Hall is the

6. Playground, once belonging to the Lake Coleridge School, it has been relocated next to the

7. Tennis courts, these were built 1921 and held their first recorded tennis match on Boxing Day in 1924.

Follow the track past the hall, between the houses onto Acheron Avenue. You can explore this street if you wish. This street used to be called East Flat or Top Flat. Walk up to the entrance of the street which is the main road, turn to the right and walk up to the second paddock on the right. This little building is the original golf club building. The next building that was built has now been shifted to Darfield as is being used for an office for Malvern News

8. Walk on back to the hall and to the left of the track that you came up is the Teachers track, it went from the teachers house on Kowhai drive to the school. It now goes through the new arboretum that is being developed. Follow this track right through back to the fire station, turn left down kowhai drive, and on through to

9. Is a Low wooden building. This is where the petrol pump was kept and also a stable and chaff house for some of the many draft horses used during the construction days. The last horses were still used until 1953 for collection of the village rubbish, snigging logs and carting firewood. The concrete building now houses the Local Fire Engine and equipment.

10. In the gully past the petrol pump was where the first married couple lived in a tent below wind level until a cottage was built for them. First house on the left is where

11. House No 1 was built. It was a huge Villa with very high Studs and was where the Superintendent lived. This house is now at Long Spur on Coleridge Road Third house on the left is where the Batch was it is now at Windwhistle garage

12. The houses in the village were rented by the Power station staff until the early 80's when they were able to be purchased. This street was also known as Center Flat or Bottom Flat you will find at the end of this street is the entrance to the cemetery. Go through the gate, these Pine trees were all planted in the early 20's.

13. On the right near to the cemetery you will notice the tree that has been hit by lightning in Feb 2000

14. Opposite this tree is where a moa hunters cooking site was unearthed in the early 1950’s. Bill Leith, George Good and Hugh Burrows carefully discovered at a depth of 30 inches a fireplace of blackened river (greywacke) stones, charred wood and tussock, plus neck and leg bones from at least two Moa, also a flake of Obsidian rock. These are now found at the Canterbury Museum. This site is approx. 600 years old as all the bones had been picked clean.

15. The cemetery holds a grave for Laurence McKeown who died from flu in 1918. During the pandemic.

16. The large trees in this area are called Pinus Coulteri or Big cone Pine trees. Through the gap in the trees, this leads you down to the point. Here you can see a wonderful view up the Rakaia River. If you look down to where the tailrace water from the powerhouse meets the Rakaia, this is where the adult Salmon gather in large numbers before going upstream. Sometimes they will spend 3 to 4 weeks in the pool until a flood in the river triggers off their journey up to the trap at the old Salmon farm.

17. Across the river is Redcliffs, you will notice the pink marble cliffs, this is Lime but was not economical to crush as it was too hard.

18. Up on the right of this, not visible from the Point is Glenariffe Stream, it features the earliest of the fish farms on the Rakaia, operated as an experimental station by the M.A.F. until recently when it was sold.

19. In the center of the Upper Rakaia valley is Manuka Point Station where the progenitors of the Rakaia Red Deer were released in 1896 having been brought from Stoke Park in England.

20. To the right of Manuka Point is the Rolleston Range, between the Mathias and Wilberforce Rivers. To the right again of this is Mt Algidus where Mona Anderson lived. Mona has written many books where she shares her life experiences.

21. Drop down to the lowest Walkway to the right, this is the Tailrace Walk. There are a lot of lovely Kowhai Trees here that look magnificent when all out in flower. You will notice a small gate on the left of the path, if you look across the tailrace you will see part of the old salmon hatchery. There was a Barrier set across the Tailrace which prevented the salmon going back up to the power house.


22. Igloo shaped building. This was built during the war and would have been used for covering the generators in case of an air raid. It was later shifted to its present position to be used to store scrap metal until ready for sale. In front of this is a Magazine room where gunpowder or blasting powder was kept for blasting the trees. This gunpowder was kept in the lunch room before that, under a seat that smokers sat on.

23. It has been said that Salmon have been seen trying to swim up the Weirs in front of the power house, smelling the water where they originated from. The Weirs act like a waterfall.

24. The Power Station was the first Government owned Hydro Electric Power Station built in New Zealand.
Building started in 1911 with the second addition being added in 1925. There is a variety of photographs in the Lodge for you to view on the power house construction days. Walk on back toward the Post Office, and just past the bulk store on the left is a black sealed path, walk up the path and you will be on the

25. Chip and Putt Golf Course. This was developed in 1999 to enhance what was available at the Lodge. You are most welcome to have a game at your leisure.This track leads you to Riverview Terrace and to

25. House No 4. This was the Hostel built approx 1952. This house comprised of a Manageress's flat, a room that could be used for an assistant and if the Flat was not needed it was used for the overflow. This Hostel was used for the main dining area to feed all the single men in the Single Men's Quarters (Now Lake Coleridge Lodge) as well as the Hostel. Before this was built the

26. Billiard Club next door was used for the Dining room and Manageress's Flat. This was later converted to the Billiard rooms that it is today. Now walk down to Harper Place which is on the right . Looking up this street on the left was where the public Nurse was situated during the construction days. She had a two roomed building where she treated her patients. This area of Coleridge Village was known as the Pipeline Flat or West Flat. Walk on around both sides of Harper Place back around the back of the Lodge until you get to the Coleridge Intake Road. Turn right. This leads you to the

27. Arboretum. This is one of the best displays of conifers on this side of the world. Plantings dating back to 1933. Heading on back to the Lodge now and just below the Arboretum is where the Huts were. This area consisted of a cookhouse, huts, Blacksmith Shop and recreation area. Later used by Downers in the 70's to accommodate men used in the upgrade of the pipes.

A bakery was to the right of this road

28. Back to the Lodge built in 1934 and was the Single men's Quarters for the Power Station. It originally had 6 bedrooms with another wing being added in 1958. This building has received many facelifts.The Lodge now sleeps 18 and contains snippets of history.Each room in the Lodge is named after the surrounding rivers,with the newest being named after Hugh Burrows, a long time resident of the Single Men's Quarters. Hugh has left a lot of recorded history for you to look at and also helped with the recently published books on Lake Coleridge.


We hope you enjoyed your journey of exploration and join us for a cup of tea on the deck or a beer at Hughs waterhole.