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| Parked up at Jack's Point just below the Remarkables |
As we had
made a booking for the Bus to have its annual service in Dunedin (3 months late
– but hey! We haven’t had time!!), we left Pounawea after a month’s stop over.
By the time we restocked supplies in Balclutha, we finally got on the road just
before midday. Heading out to the east coast at Waihola on SH1, we drove down to the
Taieri River Mouth and parked up for a late lunch.
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| The lovely Railway Station at Dunedin |
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| Soooooooo lonely! The beautifully tiled waiting area |
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| Port Chalmers is busy with container & log ships |
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| Our lovely park over at Moeraki Beach |
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| Bill and his Moeraki Boulder |
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| What the Boulders really look like! |
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| On my way to Fluers Place |
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Looking out from upstairs at Fluers Place
Much of the building & furniture is recycled materials |
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| Looking across Macraes Pit into the portal |
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| Looking across to the Rock & Pillar Ranges |
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Someone has to do the hard work! J&M's gardens are looking
good now two years on |
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| The Remarkables are an amazing backdrop |
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Looking across to some of the many hotels
just before Queenstown from the Trail |
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| Cycling on the old Kawerau Bridge |
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| Looking across Moke Lake back to the carpark |
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| Looking back down Moke Lake toward Queenstown |
Sadly the weather wasn’t that great for walking,
so we continued on into Dunedin along the scenic coastal road. Beautiful
beaches are along this coast, on a sunnier day they would have been more
appealing to stop off at.
Our
destination in Dunedin was the NZMCA Park just out of town in the Leith Valley.
It’s a good sized park with a gravel base, so it’s good for parking at this
time of year just unfortunate it doesn’t get a lot of sun. There were 3 other fellow motorhomers.
We dropped
the Bus off early the next morning and then headed off on foot into town to spend
some time at the Early Settlers museum. This is a great museum full of early
settler stories and hardships, and the settlement of this region. Plus the
Goldrush in the 1860’s which encouraged more settlers to the area and all the
supporting services required for the Prospectors. After lunch we walked into
the Octagon just as the southerly hit
with a drop in temperature and rain. No dawdling today, but did have time to
take in Dunedin’s Public Art Gallery
(which began in 1884), plenty of variety of art works. Looked in on the classic Dunedin Railway station. An absolute gem and sat in the seat that that I as a young 16 year old spent the night sleeping waiting for the morning train after being dropped there by friends having hitched a ride from Nelson.
A cold draughty interminable night which I don't ever care to repeat...
We had a drive
out to Port Charmers the next day, where we haven’t had much time for a look around before
and reading a good review of the Maritime Museum there, thought we would take
the opportunity. We have been visiting a few museums down this way
which we have enjoyed NZ’s early Settlers and Maori history as much as the
geology of the country, which is quite different to
the North Island.
We followed
the coastal road along to Aramoana which
is at the far end of a sand dune spit, opposite the Otago Peninsula on the other side of the harbour, where we have
visited previously.
Aramoana is
a quiet little seaside settlement with mostly old Cribs, there are boardwalks taking you through the sand dunes and out to beautiful
beaches ( when the weather plays it’s part of course). It has an artificial breakwater (1200m out
from Aramoana) to prevent the harbour from silting up.
From Dunedin we headed north to Moeraki to the famous Moeraki Boulders and famous Fluer's Place. A Couple from the Motor Home Club offer their property as a park over place, which is very handy so close to the beach to the boulders and a pleasant 5 km walk to Fluers.
Fluer's had been on our radar for a long time but our timing was never right to stop and enjoy a meal. It opened back in 2002 and many people had recommended her to us. This time we included her in our plans, booking at our Park Over Place for two nights to allow us time to check out the Moeraki Bolders, which are quite impressive on their own, and visit Fluers. I had rang a couple of days prior to see if I needed to book considering it is winter, and was told quite authoritatively I did indeed. And thankfully when we turned up, the day wasn't that great and it didn't seem too busy from the outside, but what a surprise inside! Lucky we booked! Fluer's Place is known for her fresh seafood dishes so of course that is what we had, and enjoyed sharing a Five Fish Platter with lovely steamed veges. The atmosphere is lovely and relaxed with Fluer wandering through chatting away to anyone who has the time too. Staff were very friendly, we had a young Frenchman, who is out in NZ on a working holiday, serve us. Apart from the wine (a local vineyard), the experience was very enjoyable.
With the
crucial rugby decider for the Bledisloe Cup now imminent it was time to move, a
town with a warm pub close to a camping spot - two choices: Ranfurly or Cromwell
but some sight seeing first.
Trotters
Gorge was on our map as a place to be considered, only a few kms from us on the
way to Palmerston, thence onto the Pigroot, so named by the early goldminers
crossing that particular route to the Otago gold fields as it was well cut up
and boggy, reminiscent of pig rootings (obviously introduced pigs being
recognised as an environmental nuisance way back then).
Trotters
Gorge was a limestone area with a large scenic gorge cut through, with some
good hikes and a nice, if somewhat shaded, DOC campsite. Well worth a couple of
nights in summer.
From here it was on to the Pigroot, an old
goldminers route and as such has some history…. Not far along spotting the original arched stone Bowkers
Bridge , a relic from the old coach road built in 1869 and indeed still in use until 1962,
which, I know, was a while ago, but not beyond the memory of some of us.
Another stop
calling me was Macraes flat. Full of
history but more significantly Macraes gold mine….Somewhere I was keen to
observe. Especially since Shannon had the good fortune to visit and go
underground for her work in 2015.
Those that
have been to Waihi’s Martha mine (ain’t that a real name for a goldmine!) have
goggled at the enormity of that hole in the ground….well this is “mucho huger”…boggling and then when you spot the little hole or portal
at the bottom, which huge trucks disappear into, read the blurb and realise
there is over 65 kms , and growing, of underground roading too. Well below sea level, it is amazing. The
photos don’t do it justice. They process
huge amounts of ore and have extracted since this company started in
1990 3.61million ounces of gold …….that’s over
10 metric tonnes…..and it’s all flown to Perth for further processing from 97% to 99% purity. This is big business
with a massive geographic footprint,
goodness knows how the land will be all re-mediated when it’s all over.
That was
well worth the look, but what it meant
journey wise was we had bypassed the Pigroot per se. This was not an issue as it would have added a few kms to our trip and this way it took us thru great scenic Otago landscape
previously unseen by us.
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| Bowkers Bridge built in 1869 |
This detour
put us on the road from Dunedin to Ranfurly, indeed following some of the
places we visited on the two Otago Rail Trail trips we have done previously. So to Ranfurly we ventured via Hyde,
Tiroiti, Kokonga ,and Kyeburn. Ranfurly
fitting the criteria of a warm pub with TV and a convenient camp. However
Sheryl’s reading of the weather forecast gave it an expected overnight
temperature of minus 6 degrees…… oh gawd…. It was early enough and not much
chop so we carried on further inland (yes we know, it probably wasn’t going to
improve). Cromwell is a rather pleasant place, we’ve spent several nights there
over the last few years and yes, it ticked the boxes….. but shock horror a monkey’s
ball freezing overnight of minus 9 degrees was expected
Plan C was hurriedly instigated. There was still daylight left so on we went to our fail proof
bolt hole. We did have a lawn mowing engagement in Queenstown and the generous
offer of a few nights accommodation in their AbFab holiday home. And so it passed we arrived in time to cook
some dinner before settling in front of the large TV and watching the delayed
thrashing of the Australians. Life is Sweet.
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| Lake Wakatipu from the proposed marina at Jack's Point |
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| A WW1 relic - given to NZ as a memento! Arrowtown |
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| You can't get sick of the view of the Remarkables 😍 |
As Jenny & Murray were overseas travelling and needed their lawns doing, we had arranged prior to our Pounawea stint to
return and mow them and with a generous offer to stay on for a few nights
we did. Queenstown is much changed from my younger days, spent here usually
with one or other brother, at our grandparents who retired here in the early
60’s. We had billy milk and one small 4Square, a tearoom where if we weren't in
Grandads bad book, Nana might take us to for a custard square and lemonade. And
of course ice skating , usually daily, and sometimes bowls if Grandad wasn't
in a competition and Nana had the time to walk us down and mind us. The bowling
folk tolerated us reasonably behaved kids and we were often allowed to push a
bowl up the green. And so that was the
start of brother Ian’s love of Bowling which has still not diminished….. I don’t
mind the odd roll up either.
Queenstown
of today is a very different kettle of fish, it has embraced tourism and caters
well all year round to the hordes, continuously jetting in. The old town is unrecognisable as
is most of the new town but it can’t be
denied, it is a scenic wonderland, The one thing they haven’t been able to ruin.
We are at Jacks
Point a locality about 6ks down the Kingston Rd from Frankton, a quiet area with little of the business of
town, very scenic with all round views,
lovely walks, and good all day sun, a bonus at this time of the year. From this base we journeyed to Lake Johnson and Moke Lake. Moke Lake had
a pleasant if somewhat muddy 2 hour walk around it and may be known to some as
the place of Jane Campions “Woman’s Camp “. We never caught that series. It is a lovely spot 20 minutes from town.
There is also a 4 hour walk thru the back high country from there to Arthurs
Point which may be biked, walked or even horse trekked. So we have a few options
there for next time.
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| Peaceful Arrowtown (Well it is in Winter) |
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| Wonder if they are worried about sea rise! (Aramoana) |
We also
spent a sometime at Arrowtown visiting
the museum (always interesting) wandering the streets, having a light lunch in one of the many cafes
, all very pleasant. Always finding at
every turn, more to do another day. We even
managed a bike ride from Frankton to Queenstown on the Queenstown Bike Trail, which nicely
removes you from the traffic, keeping down along the waters edge. A pleasant day, mid week wandering the
streets, telling Sheryl how much it had all changed, on and on like a stuck
record. Midweek has a certain appeal as one might assume that all the tourists
are out skiing and town should be deserted, as it probably was. However still
quite busy from our perspective, and always, always, a huge queue outside Ferg
Burgers meaning, sadly , I will never ever get to try one.
So now it is time to venture further south and see just how cold we can cope!
