A cycle trail through South Island ghost towns following an old gold miners' route has received an $800,000 funding boost.
The Old Ghost Rd in the Tasman Region takes in long-forgotten gold rush settlements and remote farms abandoned after the 1929 magnitude 7.8 Murchison earthquake, which reshaped the land and limited access to the area.
Some 60km of the 80km trail has been completed to date.
Conservation Minister Nick Smith said the extra $800,000 of Department of Conservation (DOC) funding would enable the full track to be completed by March 2015.
He described the Old Ghost Rd as "a journey back in time" to the gold rush days of the 1860s.