Finally We Have Snow- Maniototo

Catch-up

From St Bathans we moved just 40kms east to the small Maniototo town of Ranfurly. I was still hoping for my blue sky hoar frost and the weather was certainly miserable enough for it. With bitterly cold temperatures, frosty mornings, snow flurries, dull brooding skies and no sign of the sun for several days it certainly felt like something was brewing. 

That's us, way over there- 'Nigel No Mates'- with the NZMCA Park totally to ourselves all week. This happens to us regularly when we spend winter down South. I'm sure we must be mad and for a short time I did wonder if we were. It really was no fun outside but at least we were toasty warm inside.

I said we had the park to ourselves all week. Well, that wasn't quite true. We did have this colourful character (and his lovely partner Lou) as neighbours for one night. Sean left his trademark rainbow stripes on the water tap post before leaving the next morning. 

While we were waiting for the weather to do something other than be grey and miserable we did a 270km round trip to Dunedin for the day. My laptop had been playing up for a few weeks, it was definitely on its last legs and we were worried it would suddenly crash and then I'd be lost without it for however long it took to buy and set up a new one. So when David saw a special deal on the one he had his eye on, there was nothing for it but to drive to Dunedin. We did a loop driving through to Palmerston, onto Dunedin and then home through Outram & Middlemarch. 

I'm now the proud owner of the latest HP Omen laptop with a 17" screen, which I need for my photo processing. This laptop is used by gamers (video games played online). It's built super tough which is just as well, I'm very hard on my laptops, this is my third laptop in 7 years on the road. For the geeks amongst you it has a 6-core Intel i7 processor, 16GB of memory & a 1TB hard Drive, whatever that means, I just know it's super fast! (and uses a super amount of power too!)

Finally the weather broke and while there wasn't my longed for blue sky hoar frost there was a reasonable dump of snow. Though sadly not in Ranfurly. 

I didn't have to travel too far up the road though to find the white fluffy stuff & a patch of blue sky.

Crossing Idaburn at the top of the Ida Valley.

Ponds and waterways beside the road were not quite frozen over; in this one you can see tracks at the back where ducks have paddled through the ice slurry.

Some paddocks where pristine white, others had livestock patiently waiting for their winter feed to arrive. It wasn't only the farm stock waiting for their food, in one yard I saw a cattle beast carcass on the back of a large trailer. As I approached two hawks lifted off from it. Perhaps it was dog tucker, but the hawks were certainly having a good feed before it was moved. I did get a photo but I won't post it here.

Farm tractors had made a mess of  the snow in the gateways to the farm's silage & hay storage areas.

I drove as far as the Home Hills Runs Road turnoff; the road that lead us on our epic Hawkdun Range journey just four days earlier.

What a difference! I'd have loved to have driven down it a little way but thought better of it.

There are several old buildings at Hills Creek that are great photo subjects and especially when there's snow about. I thought this cottage was unoccupied until I saw a person move past the window (and spotted the new roof when I looked at the photo later). I don't usually make it quite so obvious when I take photos of people's houses.

This stone cottage will be very familiar to anyone who travels SH85 between Ranfurly and Alexandra. There's no chance of missing it, it's front door opens just about onto the road! It would make a lovely cottage if only the road wasn't so close.

And this historic former school house has had a tidy up since I last took it's photo. I guess the next time I stop there'll be someone living in it.

It was time to head for home when a rain storm I was watching at the bottom of the valley suddenly sped up and was heading straight for me.

The next day I drove the loop from Ranfurly to Kyeburn, on to Danseys Pass and back through Naseby to see whether there was any snow out that way. 

Kyeburn Diggings- sluice and dredge sculptured cliffs

Danseys Pass was closed due to snow but there was only a dusting on the Kakanui Mountains which hadn't fallen down at road level. I turned around at the same place we did a few years ago when we were out chasing snow. I wonder if they're the same sheep! 

Kakanui Mountains- 8 August 2019

Kakanui Mountains-  1st August 2015

I drove back through Naseby and thought I'd check out a road to a dam I'd seen when passing it the day before. West Eweburn Dam is at the top of the Maniototo Valley, it sits below the Ida Range and is on the edge of the Naseby Forest. The 6km gravel road was very corrugated so I took the dirt track beside it, as had others before me.

I drove to the end of the track, crossed a ford and even though there was a rough track up to the top of the dam wall, I thought I'd walk the rest of the way just in case I came to grief. From the top of the wall I could see the Mt Ida Water Race winding it's way around the hill on the right towards the dam and then passing below me on its way to Naseby after exiting the dam. 

See the ute? 

West Eweburn Dam was very pretty, and so tranquil with the snow covered mountains reaching down to the water on the far side of the dam.

Someone else thought this place was very special too. A memorial seat was tucked into the corner beside the dam outlet, with a perfect view across the dam. What a lovely place to rest and reflect.

West Eweburn Dam was built in 1898 to store water from the 112km Mt Ida Water Race (the longest water race in NZ). The dam held the water before it continued onto Naseby where it was used by the gold miners. The water race is now used for irrigation. The water exits the dam over a small weir and then through a narrow gap/hole (couldn't quite see) in the rocks.

Relics from the past lie beside the nearby stream. 

I passed by this lovely fellow on my way up to the dam. He was chained to a fence beside some stock yards. There was no stock or people in sight and he jumped up wagging his tail as he watched me drive past and disappear down the road. He was still there an hour later when I came back down so I stopped to say hello. He was very happy to see me but I didn't go too close in case he was scared. 

I felt a little sad for him as it was getting cold & late and he couldn't move much on his short chain.  He'd obviously been left behind while the farmer shifted their stock. Just as I pulled away, a flash mud splattered SUV passed me & pulled in, he was getting a ride home in style.

Ranfurly's weather did improve eventually. Just as it was time to leave and head back to Cromwell. We still didn't have any mates to share it with though. 

As we headed off  back over familiar roads, the Ida Range looked magnificent. The snow so white & smooth on the mountains, just like icing on a cake.

The roadside snow had mostly melted away as we drove back through Idaburn, with Mt St Bathans looking very nice up ahead of us.

The Hawkdun Range was also looking pretty spectacular with it's snow white covering too.

It would have been fun had we been up there when the snow came, we might have frozen our butts off and not have got out for a few days but boy, would I have some great photos!

A Timeless Land- Hawkdun Range, Central Otago; Part 3

Catch-up

Continuing on from Part 2

Though we were both disappointed we didn't make it around the Hawkdun Range/Manuherikia Valley loop, I knew David would be less keen than I to venture up the other side of the valley on our way home. But he's also learnt from experience that I like to join the dots on our road trips so I was very pleased when he suggested we turn into Hawkdun Runs Road as we approached it on our way back to St Bathans. And it's only 13kms to the Oteake Conservation Park from this side.

I had said not to worry about it, we'd do it in summer or I'd come back and explore it while we were parked at Ranfurly, our next camp, but I think he thought he might just as well do it now and then only have to clean the ute once.

We flew along the first 8kms or so of the barely gravelled road, it was bone dry with no dust. And no sign of the Hawkdun Range either until the road curved around the low line of hills we'd been following and there it was, a beautiful row of flat-topped, snow capped mountains.

The road condition also started to deteriorate from here, with surface water lying in potholes and a couple of fords to cross.

We could also see the two sets of tyre marks from the off-road 4WD vehicles we'd followed up the other side, now coming towards us; they had managed to drive the loop, which was no surprise.

With all the gates open, we were covering ground too quickly for my liking. I use the gate openings as a chance to shoot photos.

But I had to shout 'Stop!' when this view opened up before us... 

...nearly the full length of Hawkdun Range (click to enlarge).

We don't hang about though, it's getting late in the afternoon and the temperature is dropping fast. The road is also getting a little sticky in places. Then around the next bend...

...the most spectacular and breath-taking view is before us; a vast tussock plain with the Hawkdun Range as a backdrop. Of course we had to stop again.

The road dissects the tussock, straight through the middle and heads off over a small rise at the far end.  David reckons he's seen it all now and we can turn around and go home. I remind him about those dots and I also bribe him. 'There's a cup-of-tea waiting for you at the end of the road', I tell him.

The Hawkdun Range- the full length! (click to enlarge)

We carry on and towards the end of the straight there's one very lonely hut with an even lonelier long-drop to photograph. It looks like there was once a pine forest surrounding the hut, it's gone now and only slash piles have been left behind. This unique and beautiful landscape looks so much better without pine plantations, and especially the pest of the high country; wilding pines, blotting the view.

The cup of tea is beckoning and it's not long before we see stock-yards and a ring of tall pine trees ahead of us. Shelter trees like this usually indicate a farm homestead and out buildings were once located here (or still are).

And sure enough, we have reached DOC's Homestead Campsite; the trees surrounding the campsite are the only remaining sign of where the old Michael Peak Station homestead was once located. 

The homestead site dates from the 1850s, when pastoral licences were issued throughout the South Island high country, creating large lease-holdings in the surrounding mountain ranges such as Hawkdun, Omarama, Otekaike and Morven Hills Stations. Many of these stations have now returned to the Crown or were purchased back by the Crown for the pleasure of all New Zealanders to enjoy.

A corrugated iron DOC hut sits beside a nearby stream, looking very much like an authentic settlers cottage.

While we have our well earnt cup-of-tea, we scan the far side of the valley to see if we can spot the track and our earlier turnaround point but it's just about impossible, all the features are similar.

We can see a musterer's hut on the edge of a large plateau but it's not the one David saw when he drove up to the beehives, this one is further along the road (click to enlarge, the hut sits centre towards the bottom of the photo).

With the shadows lengthening fast we head back to the road.

And even though the road looks OK further on, this'll be as far as we go today. It's time to head for home, it's bitterly cold and the sun will be soon gone. 

I checked the map later and it looks like 4kms was all that prevented us from joining the dots (the total loop was 41kms). I'm sure we'll be back in the summer to complete the job.

David spent the next morning water-blasting the ute and cleaning our gear.

Here's a good tip; the old beachtowel is used to cover the front windscreen at night when a frost is expected. Then when I get up to go shoot sunrises I don't have to spend half an hour defrosting the screen before I can drive out.

And just four days later the snow came- Home Hills Runs Road.

Hawkdun Range with my 'Grahame Sydney' historic farm buildings just visible to the left of the trees.