Apart from the Summit Road itself, the Sign of the Takahe is the most outstanding monument to the memory of Harry Ell. This is the first rest house encountered as the traveller leaves Ōtautahi Christchurch by Dyers Pass Road. The ornate “baronial late-gothic” structure is undoubtedly an anachronism, but it would be a sad error simply to dismiss it as some of sort of architectural freak for this reason.
Sign of the Takahe
In the first place this striking building was constructed against all the odds, employing many highly skilled craftsmen who found themselves out of work during the depression. Materials, sand tools were scrounged, salvaged, and improvised in a manner that would not be unfamiliar to pioneer New Zealanders, but on a scale that was truly monumental. For example, the great kauri beams that are such a splendid feature of the lounge were salvaged from a former bridge across the Hurunui river. The historical friezes in the memorial room were made from packing cases, and the stone work of the building was quarried and brought down from the surrounding rocky outcrops. Even the tools that the craftsmen used were, in many cases, forged on the site from scrap metal.
Of the other rest houses planned, only the Sign of the Kiwi at the junction of Dyers Pass and Summit Roads provides refreshment for the modern traveller.
Sign of the Kiwi
However, further south are the remains of the Sign of the Bellbird which was a tearooms from 1916 to around 1940, and now a welcome and well-used shelter above Kennedys Bush. The Sign of the Packhorse above the Kaituna Valley is in regular use as a trampers’ hut.
Sign of the Bellbird
Sign of the Packhorse
