A Seriously Long Road Trip

Catch-up (Mid September, 2019)

While we were staying with our Southland family in Winton during September, I had the bright idea of doing a road trip to photograph the 'blossoms' in the fruit orchards of Central Otago. Never mind that it would be a 400km round trip and I was going by myself, it's no hardship at all as I love driving and I love being able to stop and take photos where and when I like. Not that David doesn't stop for me, but with the rig on the back it's often not possible or practical.

I left Winton at 7am in the cold pre-dawn light and enjoyed the quiet roads as I headed north passing through Dipton, Lumsden, Athol and Garston before making my first stop just north of Garston at my favourite woolshed...

...just as the sun reached over the nearby hills dispersing the fog that had settled in the valleys overnight.

Then it was on past Kingston around the edge Lake Whakatipu and up the 'Devils Staircase'; a winding cliff hugging road that is often bumper to bumper traffic with tour buses and tourist vehicles on the way to or coming back from Milford Sound (a 600km, 10hr round trip from Queenstown, and not one that should be undertaken lightly).

I drive through Frankton and head into the Kawarau Gorge. My next stop is at the historic 1880 Kawarau Suspension Bridge, the birth place of AJ Hackett's commercial bungy jumping. I stay long enough to watch a couple of jumpers; one extremely keen to do it, screaming and laughing with delight from the moment she stepped onto the platform, the other screaming and crying with fear!

Next stop in the gorge is at the Roaring Meg power station lookout. The Roaring Meg Stream tumbles down from the mountains above passing through two small power stations before exiting into the Kawarau River.

And the last stop in the gorge is at another favourite spot, a gravel pit that's a good stand-in for a lookout up the gorge.

And here's a comparison shot; I took this photo just a month later when spring was well on the way to turning the gorge a brilliant green.

My make-do lookout is just across the river from the replica Chinese village at Gees Flat, part of the Gold Fields Mining Centre. Sluiced terraces, tailing piles and the remains of huts can still be seen along the nearby steep edges of the gorge.

Once out the otherside of the gorge I'm approaching my blossom destination, Cromwell, 200km from home.  But after all that, there are not too many fruit trees in blossom in the orchards along the main highway, they have either finished flowering or the blooms are past their best. 

I can see several orchards smothered in pink blossoms away from the road but have no way of reaching them. Eventually I find a few trees and take some photos. I decide to carry on to Alexandra, 30kms away, another big fruit growing area in Central.

I grab a coffee & muffin from my favourite cafe in Cromwell, Fusee Rouge, and drive around to the Old Cromwell Town Lookout, above the confluence of the Kawarau and Clutha Rivers, to have them.

Then it's off through the Cromwell gorge towards Clyde...

...but not before I stop to check out the memorial plaque to the miners who first discovered gold here in the 1886 Dunstan gold rush.

I continue on to Clyde where I cross the Clutha River below the Clyde Dam bypassing Alexandra town centre because I know there are plenty of orchards along Earnscleugh Road on the opposite side of the river to town.

And I do find a few orchards in flower but I'm strangely not inspired, it's now the middle of the day and the light is harsh and I fail to get creative. Again I take a few shots and carry on my merry way east, I have plan...

I take a side road through Conroys Gully, it comes out at Butchers Dam on the highway heading east. I pass- what I think is a pear orchard in full blossom- just below a snow capped Old Man Range.

I stop at an unusually quiet Butchers Dam, there are no motorhomes or campervans at any of the freedom camping areas around the dam; it's just me and a few shags drying out on the nearby rocks on this chilly, blue sky, late winter's day.

Next stop is the old cob cottage at Fruitlands where some nosy cattle keep an eye on me from the paddock behind. Perhaps they think I have food for them. Much of the livestock in Southland and Otago is strip-fed over winter which means that after they have eaten the crop back to bare earth they have nothing to forage on while waiting for the next crop strip to be opened up or hay or silage to be delivered.

There are the remains of several other cob buildings nearby, this one looks quite substantial, it could have possibly been a homestead or a hotel.

I've decided to try the Roxburgh orchards for blossom. I'm driving further east and I know rather than retracing my steps, I can do a loop and head back to Winton by turning off at Ettrick, heading over the top of the hills past Heriot to Tapanui on to Gore and then across to Winton. 

Roxburgh has many roadside stalls which sell freshly picked fruit during the summer season, most are closed up as I pass by. Still more have disappeared altogether and others have been left to the elements while climbing creepers look to have swallowed a few too. 

There are a few orchards in blossom and this time they are more accessible...

...although once again the majority of them are white. The pink blossoms I do find are spent, pink must flower earlier than the white.

The afternoon is marching on but I do a quick calculation on distance & time and decide I'm going to carry on to Lawrence, 60kms further east from Roxburgh. There's another attraction that I'm aware of, it's only open for five weekends during spring and this just happens to be one of those weekends. But I do need to hurry along as the place I intend to visit closes at 4pm. 

The historic Hart's Black Horse Brewery at Weatherston, just outside Lawrence, is not only well known for it's ruins...

...it's also famous for the hundreds of thousands of daffodils that are planted over the nearby hillsides.

The daffodils were first planted in 1895 and it was thought that over 1 million bulbs were planted during the first few years, covering 10-15 acres of hillside behind the brewery. No expense was spared and  prices as high as £100 were paid for single bulbs from the Netherlands. Incredible when the average wage was only around £5.

People came from far & wide to see the daffodils when they were in bloom, the flowers were also picked by school children & sold for charity. In 1912 the first train excursions from Dunedin came; 2 trains of 13 carriages each organised by the Dunedin Horticultural Society.

More recently a charitable trust was formed with the aim of preserving and developing the site, which had fallen into disuse and disrepair. In 2005 the daffodil fields were once again opened up to public display, the first time in 50 years. After losing momentum the Trust was reformed in 2016 and with support and help from the people of Lawrence, the daffodil gardens were once again open for the public to view in 2017. 

The landowner prefers that the flowers aren't picked which in a way is a shame because I'm sure the money earnt from this would help in preserving the site, there is a $5 entry fee which goes to charity. 

I was pleased to have made the effort to visit, it had been on my 'must do, one day' list ever since we visited the brewery site in the middle of winter a few years ago and learnt of the daffodils. 

For those NZMCA members reading this, the property below the daffodil slopes is Paul & Glenice Kirkwood's Weatherston POP#8890, a delightful setting in the countryside and not too far from Lawrence & Gabriels Gully.

And that was it for me for the day, it was time to head home and with no dilly-dallying if I was to get there before dark. I drove 25kms back up the road to Raes Junction, turned left and headed south west towards Gore and then on to Winton arriving just as the sun dropped below the horizon. My 400km return trip to Cromwell ended up being a 500km round trip through Southland, Central Otago and Otago.

One last stop near Tapanui to photograph some little cuties

A Place People Drop Into- Mokai Canyon

We took a little tiki-tour out the back of Managweka, it’s a chance to explore an an area that most people would not visit, even though they may pass through the town frequently on their travels from north to south and visa-versa.

The Rangitikei river gorge & it’s papa rock cliffs stretch off into the distance and across the farmland we see a large viaduct.

This is one of 3 viaducts on the Mangaweka deviation which opened in 1981. Known as the south viaduct, it has five twin-shafted piers. At 78 metres high, and 315 metres long, this viaduct is the fourth highest and second longest in New Zealand. The South Viaduct was the first in the world to use energy-absorbing dampers in the foundation of the piers. In the event of an earthquake the piers will step from side to side but not collapse (I wonder if that's been put to the test yet...)

Not much further on and still surrounded by high papa cliffs- even the river tributaries have worn their way through the soft clay- we stop near the old Mangaweka Power Station(1911) and after having a look at the remains of the Power Station we walk along a short track to the dam. This is the Mangawharaiki River and the narrow canyon it flows through is amazing. The problem is I can’t get a clear view of it because the bank is so overgrown but the top right photo gives a little bit of an indication. The river bed has been carved into hundreds of hollows, ridges and small caves. It reminds me of a crocodile or tuatara skin, the way it curves it's way down the gorge.

We’re not on our own when we get to the dam wall, this is obviously the local's swimming hole. There’s a dozen or so teenagers swimming in the deep hole that’s formed at the bottom of the dam. They’re not only swimming after hauling themselves up the wall on a rope, they’re then launching themselves off the cliff  hanging onto another rope & dropping into the depths below.

There’s a stone stairway and then a ladder which we climb to get us to the top of the wall. I was expecting a large lake behind the dam but it was only a small pool. The power station stopped working in 1937 and one of the main reasons can still be seen today- a large log stuck firmly in the outlet tunnel beside the stairway.

I take some slow shutter shots of the waterfall from up the top but I feel uneasy standing on a small square of concrete above rushing water & knowing I have to get back down the ladder to get to the bottom. I offload my camera to David, who goes ahead of me, before I begin to inch my way down the ladder holding on for dear life- why's it always easier going up? Trouble is once you’re up you got to come down.  I keep my eyes looking right, there’s more vegetation on that side rather than an open space into the pool below on my left. I think it’s more the noise than the height that scares me most, I don’t like the sound of loud rushing water.

We leave the dam and weave our way inland where there are many view points of the river and it’s white cliffs. The gorge would have been a huge barrier for farmers in the early days, not just the height but the fact that it’s a very meandering river. Just when you think you’re left it behind it appears in front of you again.

We’re not finished with the river just yet either. Our next destination is a well known tourist attraction and being 22kms from the main highway you’d think not too many people would take the time to visit it. But this is the home of the most popular extreme sport spots in the North Island. The Mokai Canyon is where you can bungy jump, giant swing or zipline/flyingfox to your heart’s content as long as you’re prepared to empty out your bank account at the same time.

The Mokai Canyon itself is truly amazing and there is no way these photos can show you actually how deep the canyon is. Believe me it’s incredibly deep. Part of the river and canyons were used as Anduin River in LOTR- The Fellowship of the Rings, and I can now see why.

We had a coffee on the deck and while we were sitting there we heard faint screams. By the time I rushed onto the viewing platform a person on the zipline/flying fox had roared by, passing under the bridge and flying off towards the far end of the canyon attached to a wire which is 175 metres above the river and 1.1 kilometres long. They reach speeds of 160kp/h along the way.

I thought that the person may have been hauled up to the end platform to finish their ride but no he was slowly pulled backwards back along the line all the way to the beginning. Unfortunately I sat back down to finish my coffee before I realised this and missed the photo opportunity as he passed by out front. To give you an idea of the size, I could not make out the person in the harness as they were hauled up the last section, all I could see was a blob. That was until I zoomed in with my camera and realised that in fact there were two people in the harness.

In the photo above I have circled the platform where they left from- yeah that tiny speck! You can also see the stairway that the zipline riders have to climb to get there, to the left of the circle- that’s after climbing through the bush up the side of the canyon for a fair distance too. And in the photo below I’ve circled the platform at the other end where the wire is fixed. I’m not too sure I’d have liked to be the guinea pig that had to try the wire for the first time.

Below is the platform and stairway, and also the two people in the harness as they were pulled back to the platform. They then had to make their way back down the stairs and track to the shop. I always thought maybe I’d like to give this a go sometime but now having seen it in the flesh, there’s no way on earth you’d find me harnessed up. Not surprising I think you’d say after reading about my fear just climbing a simple little ladder!

Across the road from the Mokai Gravity Canyon is the Makino DOC campground and who do you think we found camped up there? The little van on a big road trip! I love the tarpaulin awning- it was a stinking hot day and our friends obviously needed some shade.

We completed our little road trip by stopping in Mangaweka so I could take some photos of of the iconic ‘famous in NZ’ DC3 plane tearooms. Once upon a time this would have been a huge novelty for Kiwis passing by, maybe it still is for young children, but nowadays I think it’s a bit old hat and more of a symbol for Mangaweka, a bit like the large carrot in Ohakune, the gumboot in Taihape, the salmon in Rakaia, the fruit in Cromwell, the trout (& guitar) in greedy Gore. And there are plenty of others.

I also wanted some photos of the old historic buildings along the deserted main street- deserted except for one lone guy in his beanie who came out from his house to have a coffee & a smoke on the bench.

There looks to have been an attempt to revive the street at some stage since the main highway bypassed the township back in the ‘70s. Some buildings are occupied with a few small businesses running, the pub looks like it has accommodation available while other shops have been converted into homes.

There are a few wall murals on the sides of buildings and art works here and there to add a bit of interest but the town does look like it’s on it’s last legs. A lot like many of the small rural towns we’ve seen on our travels.

There are two things I’ve learnt while taking photos of historic buildings in some of our smaller towns- the Bank of New Zealand & the Catholic Church had a whole heap of money and not much taste- well the BNZ had a little more than the Church, but both of them built concrete monstrosities that dominate the townscape (and the people?). Here’s the rather grand Mangaweka Bank of New Zealand-

And here’s the Taihape Catholic Church-

I rest my case.