State Highway 80 is a South Island

South Island

The South Island is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand, the other being the more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman Sea, to the south and east by the Pacific Ocean...

 State Highway

New Zealand State Highway network

The New Zealand State Highway network is the major national highway network in New Zealand. Just under 100 roads in both the North and South Islands are State Highways...

 in New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

. Known as Mount Cook Road, it is a tourist road between the settlements of Twizel and Mount Cook Village

Mount Cook Village

Mount Cook VillageUrban AreaPopulation:Extent:Territorial AuthorityName:Mackenzie District CouncilPopulation:Mayor:Website:Extent:Regional councilName:Environment Canterbury...

. About 55 kilometres in length, it is mostly two lane, with a few single-lane bridges. Tourists travelling between Christchurch

Christchurch

Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area after Auckland. It lies one third of the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of...

 and Queenstown

Queenstown, New Zealand

Queenstown is a resort town in Otago in the south-west of New Zealand's South Island. It is built around an inlet called Queenstown Bay on Lake Wakatipu, a long thin Z-shaped lake formed by glacial processes, and has spectacular views of nearby mountains....

 often deviate here and travel to New Zealand's highest mountain Aoraki/Mount Cook

Aoraki/Mount Cook

Aoraki / Mount Cook is the highest mountain in New Zealand, reaching .It lies in the Southern Alps, the mountain range which runs the length of the South Island. A popular tourist destination, it is also a favourite challenge for mountain climbers...

.

Route

Since designation, this is the route SH 80 takes.

For the first 31 km of the road, SH 80 runs in a northerly direction parallel with the banks of Lake Pukaki

Lake Pukaki

Lake Pukaki is the largest of three roughly parallel alpine lakes running north-south along the northern edge of the Mackenzie Basin on New Zealand's South Island. The others are Lakes Tekapo and Ohau...

 to the right and the Mackenzie Basin

Mackenzie Basin

The Mackenzie Basin , is an elliptical intermontane basin, located in the Mackenzie and Waitaki Districts, near the centre of the South Island of New Zealand. It is the largest such basin in New Zealand...

 to the left. About 10 kilometres along the road, the basin is superseded by the Ben Ohau Range

Ben Ohau Range

Ben Ohau Range is a mountain range in Canterbury Region, South Island, New Zealand. It lies west of Lake Pukaki, at .- External links :*...

. After a further 20 kilometres, the road passes the head of Lake Pukaki where it changes name to the Tasman River

Tasman River

The Tasman River is an alpine braided river flowing through Canterbury, in New Zealand's South Island.The river's headwaters are in Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park, where it is the outflow of the Tasman and Murchison Glaciers and also, via a short tributary, of the Hooker and Mueller Glaciers.It...

. The highway eventually terminates just east of Mount Cook Village after a further 24 kilometres.