Central Otago coming into Spring

Bill enjoying comprehensive guided tour.

On returning to Pounawea, Poss was to teach us how to whitebait. Poss and Bill went to the river to try their hand. Poss got two small feeds whilst Bill got 3, fish that is, kinda disappointing in many respects! The next day we went  again with worse luck, just enough for a fritter for Sheryl if you threw Bills one "bait" in. ☺☺☺

Poss & Bill (hidden) catching me a meal 🙏

Old wharf piles used to load timber from 30 odd
timber mills in the area.

Bill just chilling on Lake Catlin

One stop truck shop.

OMG! Where does one start?
This was amazing, & only the far corner of the shed.

Coal Truck & Mine Nightcaps.

Jenny & Murray in a much smaller home 😄

Vertical shaft plunging nearly 400 metres.

Thomson Gorge Rd.
Looking back to the Lindis Pass

Trying to perfect the Selfie!

An restored rock stamper battery. 

Lunch time - keeping warm out of the wind.

A lovely walk around Kelvin Heights Peninsular

Boys working hard in the garden

Poss shook his head and went back to the farm, leaving us to our own devices, so the next day Sheryl and I both went out to catch fish. In some respects we did well as we came home with 48 fish, not a huge feed but enough to make a small fritter for Sheryl.🐟
We decided we would cut our losses and with the next day being calm and sunny, we launched the kayak and paddled up the Catlins River to Catlins Lake. A very tidal area being more of an estuary then a lake. Enjoying a very scenic and relaxed paddle over 3 hours drifting around with the tide, was a fitting end to our time in Pounawea.
On the road again we headed up the Balclutha valley stopping in at the farm to say thank you to Annette & Poss for their hospitality and use of their Crib. Another parcel of mail had arrived for us. Bill was very excited as usual.
We drove on to Lumsden via the back roads of Southland. Roads that we had never done before, the, lovely green rolling fields with thousands of newborn lambs gambolling together in the spring growth - lovely country to farm I'm sure.
We spent the night in Lumsden at the NZMCA camp, a familiar place for us now having stopped there several times before. It is conveniently placed, having routes to many different areas from there. The town names of Ohai and Nightcaps were familiar to me from my days in Southland however I don't believe I have ever been there. So being quite close, an expedition was mounted. Nightcaps and Ohai are coal mining towns, but this is now in decline. It boasted New Zealand's first private railway to bring out the coal for sale to industry and retail over many years. The State Railway taking control  many years later. It is still being used to take coal through to Timaru for Fonterra's Clandeboye Plant. Indeed so much coal is taken that you would wonder about their carbon footprint! The towns are in decline and are a sad reflection on what they must have been in past but they are still an interesting reminder of how things would have been with the hustle and bustle that went with a thriving coal mining industry back in the day.
A sign to a historic saw milling operation was spotted and we popped in to have a quick look before Sheryl could find a toilet. An amiable fellow came to meet us, John Eaves, after stopping his lawn mower and introduced us to his rambling collection of very old machinery, trucks, cars, boats, and indeed a large bush  sawmill. However it took a full half hour just to get to the sawmill looking around every piece of machinery along the way. Some  looking very very dilapidated but, he assured us, all in good working  condition.Well Mostly!!
We eventually got out to the sawmill and it was indeed a working sawmill, although hasn't been for a couple of years presumably. Powered by a traction engine rescued by himself,. He had completely built the sawmill from bits and pieces,every bit having a story, in the classic style of a working bush sawmill.
His yard was littered with old trucks, and I mentioned we had been to Bill Richardson's Transport World a few days earlier. He proudly lead me to a sad wreck of rusty dilapidated panels and wheels of a truck saying, "He hasn't got one of these!".
His shed was a sight to behold and as he walked me through it, he seemed to know what everything was and had been. Pointing to piles of what may be termed rubbish and telling me what it was, where it came from, and in many cases how many pounds or dollars paid. With a gleam in his eye indicating perhaps a shrewd bargain made. He was certainly a character, and if you ever get a chance to have a look round Nightcaps he would certainly be worth a visit. Especially if you are looking for a piece anything mechanical, or a whole truck, this may well be your one stop shop. It was getting on and  poor Sheryl was holding her own after two and a half hours so we cut  the visit short before a quick toilet stop, gulped pie and trip back to Lumsden picking up the bus and hitting through to Queenstown.
The trip through to Queenstown past  Kingston took us into very windy blustery weather coming down the lake.  By the time we got through to Queenstown the wind had abated somewhat and it was relatively calm. Jenny& Murray were and residence and we caught up over an evening meal laying plans for the next  3 days.
Our foray into four-wheel driving 18 months ago when we took the Suzuki through the Nevis Road had prompted Murray, and he had since bought himself a lovely Toyota Prado. I thought it was time we should christen the shiny Prado convincing him a trip through the Thompson gorge 4WD track was an absolute must. It took only a moment to decide that this would be a great adventure with much excitement, planning lunch, packing  blankets in case we got trapped, and chairs to make it comfortable, we all went to bed excited for tomorrows excellent adventure.
It transpired Jenny and Murray hadn't been to Bendigo either and this was on the route to the Thompson Gorge. So that was our first stop of the morning. For those that haven't been there, Bendigo is a deserted gold mining town on the flanks of the Dunstan Mountains, catching glimpses of the top of Lake Dunstan.   It has many deteriorating stone buildings built by the hard rock miners in the late Eighteen Hundreds. It is now a Doc Reserve and historical site of significance. It has many vertical mine shafts now mostly covered thankfully as small children and animals would be easily lost, with one shaft claiming to be nearly 400 meters deep. It is worthy of several hours nosing about as we have done previously having excellent interpretative panels,  but we settled for the quick introductory trip of about an hour to give J&M a taster, hopefully to return with others and have a good meander around  this historic relic of our gold mining past.

Coal miner.Behemoth.

We then headed on to Thomson Gorge. The road, naturally enough, is an old gold mining route and has gold mining equipment scattered along it's path if you take the time to look. We stopped at a stamper battery with an old drive deep into the hill which  Bill followed  for about 150 m with the aid of his phone torch till his courage ran out. The Gorge Road goes 30 km up one side of the Dunstan Mountains before descending  into  the Maniototo  at Omakau, 20 km north of  Alexandra. It is a reasonable road which generally could be done with a 2WD as the fords were reasonably shallow but prone to rapid deterioration with the weather.
We all enjoyed the ride even Sheryl, if she closed her eyes on  some of the steeper sections. It was a gentle ride in many respects, lots of photo opportunities before we arrived down  on the flat main road. Sheryl, to her own demise, then looked at the map as we were approaching Clyde for a hot drink at Oliver's and said there was another back route from Clyde to Bannockburn. It was only another short 4wd burst over the mountains so I managed to convince all into thinking this would be a fitting end to the day.

A little "Doerr Upper" in Nightcaps

After our drink in Clyde, we set forth on our next little adventure. It being about 5 we hoped it wouldn't be too late. The  Hawksburn track was again a lovely scenic ride thru the majestic Tor ridden landscape so prevalent in Central Otago. The light was fading as we finally arrived  back into Queenstown  after a stunning day of travel into  places that few people will get to see unless they take the long way home.

Jacks Point Golf Course looking stunning
"Water Hazard."

A quirk of our time with J&M had us meeting Murray's man that helps them with the lawns, Frank.It turned out he was from Lumsden and as a younger man, knew a couple of boys from Lumsden that had boarded with us in Invercargill. It turned out that he knew our house from when he used to visit the boys, back in the 70s, indeed remembered Mum being a nice lady with many kids and a big house.  I don't recall him as we did have many  visiting calling on our boarders back in the day. It's a small village isn't it!

 Jenny & Murray's neighbour David had invited them over to dinner at a new place they had just built, realising we were still here, invited us also. David and Leona have a fantastic small collection of vehicles which is their0 "thing"  and wanting a place close by to be able to work on them has had a house built specifically to house the vehicles.

Even the Chooks down here have plenty of room!

The house is fitting of the area, but instead of having many internal rooms is basically a large open space. It still has a kitchen and mezzanine floor able to accommodate some guests. The house has 6 vehicles and a couple of motorbikes in it. Including a little Messerschmidt 2 seater.  It was very interesting and a credit to David's vision of being able to display his toys. A very pleasant evening was spent with the couple, Jenny & Murray and also Frank and his wife Lynn.

It was time for J&M to head back to Auckland, so we dropped them off at the airport before departing ourselves toward Cromwell and Lake Dunstan.