New Zealand State Highway 1 in the context of Ilam, New Zealand

The Hundalee Hills are located close to the borders of Hurunui District and Kaikōura District in Canterbury in the South Island of New Zealand.

Located 40 kilometres (24.85 mi) to the south of Kaikōura, Hundalee Hills are known largely for a notorious stretch of State Highway 1 between Kaikōura and Christchurch. The road winds sharply around the edge of several hills, as does the Conway River, which reaches the Pacific Ocean close to the Hundalees.

Spring Creek is a small town in Marlborough, New Zealand. State Highway 1 runs past the settlement to the west, and the Wairau River flows past to the east. Picton is 22 km to the north, and Blenheim is 6 km to the south.

The first European settlers were George Dodson, William Soper, and Dr Vickerman, in 1850. There was a major flood in 1926, when the Wairau River burst its embankments.

Ōtaki is a town in the Kāpiti Coast District of the North Island of New Zealand, situated halfway between the capital city Wellington, 70 km (43 mi) to the southwest, and Palmerston North, 70 km (43 mi) to the northeast.

Ōtaki is located on New Zealand State Highway 1 and the North Island Main Trunk railway between Wellington and Auckland and marks the northernmost point of the Wellington Region.

Palmerston is a town in Otago in the South Island of New Zealand. Located 50 kilometres to the north of the city of Dunedin, it is the largest town in the Waihemo Ward of the Waitaki District, with a population of 890 residents. Palmerston grew at a major road junction: State Highway 1 links Dunedin and Waikouaiti to the south with Oamaru and Christchurch to the north, while State Highway 85 (known colloquially as "The Pigroot") heads inland to become the principal highway of the Maniototo. The Main South Line railway passes through the town and the Seasider tourist train travels from Dunedin to Palmerston and back once or twice a week. From 1880 until 1989, the town acted as the junction between the main line and a branch line that ran inland, the Dunback and Makareao Branches.

Palmerston stands near the banks of the Waihemo / Shag River, five kilometres inland from the Pacific coast. Between it and the sea stands the lone hill of Puketapu (Māori for sacred hill, known by Southerners as Holy Hill), crowned with a monument to the 19th century Otago politician Sir John McKenzie. An annual race takes place up to the memorial and back, which is called the Kelly's canter, dedicated to Albert Kelly who ran up Puketapu as a constable in the Palmerston police force every day during World War II. This cairn is the second around Palmerston dedicated to MacKenzie – an earlier cairn was built on a hill to the north of the town, near Shag Point, but collapsed owing to the unstable geology of the site.