Story: Nelson places

In 1929 a huge landslide destroyed the Morel homestead in the Mātakitaki River valley. The slide (centre left) was triggered by a magnitude 7.8 earthquake. The rough, hummocky topography of the landslide is too difficult to clear for farming. The slip blocked the river, and a lake extended almost 5 kilometres upstream until a flood in the 1930s, when the river carved a new path through the landslide (centre right). At top right is the town of Murchison, where the Mātakitaki River flows into the Buller River.