The Oparara Basin Arches are a number of natural limestone

Limestone

Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....

 tunnels formed by the Oparara River

Oparara River

The Oparara River is a river in the West Coast region of New Zealand's South Island.It is best known for the Oparara Basin Arches and flows through a section of the Honeycomb Hill Cave...

 in New Zealand. The two most famous ones are the 'Oparara Arch', large enough for a multi-storey house, and the 'Moria Gate Arch', smaller in height, but also an impressive, beautiful place (various other places in the area also have The Lord of the Rings

The Lord of the Rings

The Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy epic written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in...

-inspired names).

The arches can be reached by a forestry road from the main road approximately 9 km north of Karamea

Karamea

Karamea is a town on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand.It is the northernmost settlement of any real size on the West Coast, and is located 96 kilometres north-east by road from Westport. There is no other connecting road to the town - the road north ends at the Kohaihai River some...

. The 12 km road is rough but can be accessed by normal cars most of the year. From the carpark, walks of around an hour return each are required to reach the arches. There is also a mountain bike track and a mountain lake in the area.

External links

• The Oparara Basin (from the karameainfo.co.nz website)