Source: Radio New Zealand
Kirsty Burrows winning pose for “Miss Pin Up” Kirsty Burrows/Kris Gallagher
For as long as I’ve been around, the township of Burkes Pass has had a prominent place in my life.
With a population of less than 100, it is the gateway to the Southern Lakes and Mackenzie Country.
It is not as grand as the Lindis, Haast, Lewis or Arthur’s Passes but tens of thousands of tourists have passed through there.
The pass, on SH8 and named after Irish bullock driver Michael Burke, rises to 709 metres and opens up the whole of the Mackenzie Basin.
My father Dave Leishman grew up there as his parents were publicans at the Burkes Pass Hotel.
The original hotel at Burkes Pass South Canterbury. Dave Taylor
When his father died tragically, in 1932, in a drowning accident on Lake Alexandrina, Dave was shuffled off to boarding school in Timaru. He was nine years old.
His mother, Myrtle, was 29 when she became sole publican of the hotel for the next thirty years.
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I remember hearing stories about grandmother Myrtle being quite a force.
The pub was a very popular place for the local young farmers to come in after a hard day on the land.
Apparently she would always insist there was a designated driver, who’d be on free raspberry-and-lemonade all night, so all his mates could drink while that one guy remained sober.
She’d keep an eye on him and make sure he was fit to drive his mates home – forward thinking for the 1950s.
The hotel is no longer there at Burkes Pass. It burned down in the mid ’90s and the owner at the time, Dave Taylor, still lives on the property having built a house on the site using part of the hotel ruins.
The remains of the Burkes Pass Hotel fire of 1994. Dave Taylor
Taylor decided if he couldn’t rebuild the hotel he would build a mini village instead.
He has done just that and named it Three Creeks, the original European name for Burkes Pass. The village area is at the confluence of Burgess Creek, the source of the Opihi River and Paddy’s Market Creek.
“I started to rebuild it, and yeah, [it] ended up turning into a shop instead,” he said.
“The original accommodation wing is our accommodation now, so we just added on to that and carried on.”
As you drive towards the southern lakes of Tekapo and Pukaki, you can’t miss Three Creeks at Burkes Pass.
It’s part museum, part store with a coffee cart perfectly positioned with the weary traveller in mind.
The replica 1950s petrol station at Three Creeks, Burkes Pass, South Canterbury. Mark Leishman
Three Creeks village has a 1950s Americana theme. It’s very eye catching and has become a rest stop for tourists and locals alike on the road to the southern lakes.
It feels like a section of the United States’ famous Route 66 has been transported here to South Canterbury.
Taylor confesses he has always been a hoarder.
“I had a museum when I was a kid. I was 10 years old and had a tree hut, and it was full of all the old stuff.
“I used to find everybody would give me stuff and so I’ve been collecting old stuff since then.”
RNZ Country Life producer Mark Leishman with Three Creeks owner Dave Taylor at Burkes Pass. Jo Raymond
He has also been making wooden outdoor furniture there for 20 years.
“We mill our own macrocarpa and make all our own furniture. It’s good, heavy stuff that doesn’t blow away in the wind.”
He has a workshop on site, with five workers creating outdoor furniture, tiny houses and traditional shepherd’s huts on wheels, complete with kitchenettes, bathrooms and solar power.
Arguably Three Creeks’ most glamourous personage is Taylor’s partner, Kirsty Burrows, who has immersed herself in the world of vintage dress.
Burrows is a vision of colour, with flaming orange hair and vibrant dresses and, like her partner, she has been an inveterate collector of all things vintage from a young age.
Kirsty Burrows at Three Creeks Burkes Pass, South Canterbury. Kirsty Burrows/Kris Gallagher
“I did rock and roll dancing and swing dancing for years, and grew up with my grandparents, so the vintage culture was always there, and the music.”
Her artful dressing and posing in front of the replica Texaco gas station at Three Creeks recently won her an international pin-up title.
“It’s sort of like that classic era that is kind of timeless, when you think of post World War Two, Betty Grable and Betty Boop.
“The fashion is really quite, quite timeless, we think, anyway, so you could wear it till you’re 80. Doesn’t matter what your age or body shape is.”
Burrows says there is quite a market for the dresses and it gets quite addictive.
“I’ve probably got 70 dresses, but then you’ve got your hats, your gloves, your handbags, your jewellery, make-up for Africa, it’s a lot of fun,” she told Country Life.
“We all just like playing dress up, and have never really grown out of it.
“My hair usually gets the most attention, but people just just like it and say you’ve brightened up my day with your colour and and they love it.”
For Burrows, being immersed in a bygone age with others means collective self esteem.
“These women really empower each other, and they lift each other up.
“They go out there full of confidence, especially the young girls, and learn that you don’t have to be a size eight to be beautiful.
“And these girls go out there and they shake their stuff and they just look amazing, and they own it, and that’s what it’s all about.”
West of Burkes Pass you’ll find the bullock wagon trail heading up the pass, and the cemetery.
Burkes Pass cemetery. Cosmo Kentish-Barnes
It is rich in history, too, and graves include those of CWF Hamilton, the local farmer who invented the jet boat.
Many of the gravestones are made out of local boulders and mark the burial sites of international climbers who died on our mountains.
“The mountains are here calling and I must go,” one plaque reads.
Another grave belongs to Kenneth Payne, an Australian geologist who loved the New Zealand mountains, and who tragically died in 1986 trying to arrest his companion’s fall on Mount Cook.
His gravestone includes a brass-mounted ice pick, some rope and rosary beads.
“He came to New Zealand for the love of the mountains, and he will remain here forever,” his plaque reads.
The gravestone of a fallen climber. Mark Leishman
And on a personal note, my dear grandfather who I never met, is buried there.
David Mowat McGregor Leishman, the local publican, died in 1932, aged 41.
He had a heart attack while fishing one day at Lake Alexandrina and fell in the very, very cold waters of the lake and drowned.
He has been resting in the Burkes Pass cemetery ever since and our extended family all love to pay him a visit whenever we are passing this beautiful part of the world.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/02/07/country-life-a-bit-of-route-66-on-state-highway-8/