Author(s): David Welch

New Zealand Historical

Port to Plains celebrates the 150th anniversary of the Lyttelton Railway Tunnel by exploring the politics, the technology and the human stories behind the construction of the Lyttelton Railway Tunnel – the largest single engineering project of colonial New Zealand. The tunnel, from the vote to build to final completion, took 16 years; inspired Vogel’s great railway construction programme and helped shape the way New Zealanders see themselves and their country.

Port to Plains offers a richly illustrated, time-tunnel journey into a world of people, not so different from ourselves, tackling huge problems, with high hopes and hand tools, gunpowder and collective determination.