The Famous Skippers Road - Part 1

The road to Skippers through the Skippers Canyon, alongside of the Shotover River is world famous in New Zealand, and is in fact, famous out there in the world too. In 2014 it was labelled by a British driving firm as one of the 22 most dangerous roads in the world to travel.  I wouldn't say it was that dangerous but it's a very difficult road to drive, and a road that rental car companies do not insure for, or allow their vehicles to travel on. All I can say is thank God for that, it's enough to meet half a dozen vehicles coming the other way let alone a few dozen foreign drivers thrown in the mix.

Skippers Road is accessed from the Coronet Peak road, high above the Arrow Basin, where we stop at a lookout to take in the wide sweeping view- the cloud foiled my attempt to get a clear photo though.

Looking right towards Lake Wakatipu and Queenstown with the Coronet Road below.

And then it's onto the Skippers Road with it's many warnings.... 

...and over Skippers Saddle a short distance later with more dire warnings. If this doesn't frighten the bejesus out of you then I guess you're ready to tackle what's ahead... 

Skippers Road was built during the gold rush, when a precarious pack track was the only access to Skipper township and the Upper Shotover diggings, 14kms further up the Shotover River. Constructed between 1883 and 1890, the road was considered a major engineering feat for its day.

Straight down...

Round a tight bend with a huge drop off (don't look out the window)...

Through Hells Gate...

...and we stop briefly to look at Castle Rock across the gully... 

...and check to see how much further down Long Gully...

...the road winds. The scenery is magnificent; dramatic schist bluffs, sheer cliffs, rocky tors and bronzed tussock in all directions. The Richardson Mountains are to the west on the otherside of the Shotover River (which we haven't seen yet) and the Harris Mountains to the east.

It's Saturday and we're a bit worried about the number of vehicles we might meet on the road. There aren't too many areas to pass and because we're travelling downhill we have to give way which means if we can't safety pass we have to back up. Thankfully the first person we see is a mountain-biker coming up the hill (you've got to be keen), later we see perhaps half a dozen other vehicles at various places, all in suitable spots to pass. Good timing by everyone.

We arrive at the bottom of Long Gully to find the remains of the Welcome Home Inn beside the road, a place that sure would have been a welcoming beacon of hospitality after travelling in to or out of Skippers. A place to rest awhile or overnight before tackling the next treacherous section. I'd not like to be in any vehicle driven by someone who might have had one too many to settle the nerves though.

The hotel was the first in the area and was built in 1863 (it would have been pack horses back then). Destroyed by fire and rebuilt twice it was finally demolished in 1951. Click on the photo to enlarge for more details.

We carry on through to the end of the gully before starting to climb again...

...stopping once more, when the road meets the rugged drop off into the gorge and Shotover River far below. During the gold rush, the Shotover River was known as "the richest river in the world". It didn't live up to it's name but it sure drew in the miners. Looking downstream...

...and upstream. Once again the views are breathtakingly spectacular.

And then it's onto the real scary bit (for me sitting on the edge where it seems David is trying to keep as far away from the rock wall on his side as possible). Skippers Road clings to the side of Skippers Canyon, which drops vertically down to the Shotover River below.

This three-kilometre stretch of road involved workers hanging off ropes hand drilling and blasting the solid rock to create a platform, now called Pinchers Bluff, 183 metres above the river. 

The road winds on; we pass Deep Creek where there's a launch area for the jet boats that tour Skippers Canyon and then we stop to view the Pipeline Bungy footbridge, this bungy was once the highest in the world at 102 metres. I'm not so sure it's running anymore, I couldn't find any information on it other than a mention that AJ Hackett (the father of bungy) had purchased it at some stage.

Our next stop is Maori Point, a very important spot in this historic gold mining area. After the first gold was found near Arthurs Point (where we are staying at the holiday park), miners moved upstream until they encountered the first gorge. They had to find their own way over the hills as the river was swift and deep and confined to many narrow steep gorges. They descended to beaches where possible, checking for gold as they went. 

In 1862, two Maori miners (Raniera Erihana & Hakaria Maeroa) made it to a secluded gorge in Skippers Canyon where they made an amazing discovery. They saw a promising area across the river and tried to cross when one of their dogs followed and was washed away. Raniera went to rescue the dog and landed on a small beach. He could see particles of gold in the crevices of the rocks and started to dig in the sandy beach. With the aid of Hakaria they gathered 25 pounds (300 ounces or 11.5kgs) of gold before nightfall. Maori Point was born. Unfortunately, in those days, Maori were not allowed to bank and the men entrusted a friendly clerk with their booty. The clerk promptly disappeared with his loot, never to be seen again.

The flat land below Maori Point soon became the booming settlement of Charlestown. Hotels, butchers, bakers, a post office, a police station and bank were established at Charlestown. The population peaked at about 1,000 but by 1864 the easily gained gold had been won and the population dropped to about 400. Today all that remains are the stones of a fallen chimney below our lookout point, and an information board and this plaque beside us.

We're now getting close to Skippers, across the way we can see the remains of water races and sluicing scars on the plateaus either side of Stony Creek. 

Chinese miners arrived at Skippers in 1866 and re-worked small claims along the Shotover tributaries. Not all Chinese were miners though, some supplied goods and services-    

I love this photo, it's very dramatic, and to give it some scale, have a look for the cottage at the back on the far right of the plateau known as Pleasant Terrace.

In many of the photos you may have noticed dead trees up the sides of the canyon and down into the river bed; here we are passing through them on both sides of the road. 

Wilding Pines are a major problem throughout the South Island's high country, destroying and blotting out iconic landscapes. It's great to see they've been tackled on such a grand scale here in Skippers Canyon. Although it will take over 20 years for the tress that aren't felled, to topple over and start to break down. 

Finally we reach the historic Skippers Canyon Suspension Bridge, which opened in 1901.

The bridge is 96 metres long and crosses over, 91 metres above the Shotover River.

Suspended on 14 wire cables, the single-lane bridge improved access to the Skippers gold mining settlement. The bridge was opened after 3 years of construction and with costs that had doubled to about 4000 pounds (around $700,000 in today's money). 

In reality, the bridge was built a couple of decades too late. By 1901 miners were leaving Skippers and the population had fallen to less than 100. The school closed in 1927 and by the 1940s the settlement was abandoned. Local farmers continued to use the bridge and since 1985 it has provided access to the Mt Aurum Recreation Reserve, which includes the ruins of the town.

To be continued... Part 2

Winton to Queenstown- Lake Hayes

Real-time,  two blog posts for the price of one today! We are out of range tucked up beside a tiny little lake just out of Queenstown (tucked up out of the weather too, we hope) and have come into town to get a few supplies and upload a couple of blogs.

After a ‘slight’ detour down to Winton two weeks ago, we said goodbye to the family on Friday and headed north again, back towards Queenstown. We had a lovely time but needed to leave them to it after their extremely busy first week back at school and work after the holidays.The weather was great, very mild and sunny for this time of the year and with spectacular sunrises and sunsets nearly everyday.

We took a picnic lunch to Dunsdale Reserve on one of the perfectly sunny days. The reserve is located in the Hokonui Forest Conservation Park a few kilometres inland from Hedgehope on the Winton to Gore highway. After passing through a pine forest on a typical forestry road of gravel, mud and corrugations, it was lovely surprise to find a beautiful green open park at the end of a the road, surrounded by native bush with a small river on the boundary. Self contained freedom camping is allowed here and I’ve heard that it’s a very busy place over the summer holidays. Today there was just one house truck and us.

There’s an easy 1hr return walk up one side of the river, passing a small waterfall on the way and through an open burn at the far end before returning down the other side of the river. Ollie managed to spot a large trout sheltering under the bridge at the top of the walk which spurred him on just in time, as he was getting tired.

The kids also had fun locating as many different birds as they could (when they stopped long enough to watch and listen) and there were plenty; fantails, tomtits, brown creepers, bellbirds and wood pigeons swooping and diving high above the trees. The bush is in mast this year and covered in a mass of colourful berries, both high and low, providing plenty of food for both birds and pests alike.  The red berries are on a pittosporum, the  translucent orange berries are hanging from the Myrtaceae shrub and the red berries with black caps in the two bottom photos are on Kahikatea trees.

For a bit of variety when we left Winton we took a different route, crossing the Oreti Plains through Wreys Bush, up to Mossburn, onto Five Rivers and then back onto SH6 through our favourites country towns of Athol & Garston and then on along the edge of Lake Wakatipu. It was about 20kms longer but the roads were nice and straight and with hardly any traffic.

We stopped just south of Athol at the old Fishermans Retreat Tea Rooms. I saw the autumn colours were just starting turn when we passed on our way south two weeks ago, so I was hoping they were still showing. The Tea Rooms look abandoned but just after I’d finished taking a few photos, smoke twirled up from the chimney and a fat ginger cat came out of the undergrowth towards me. Somebody must be living out the back.

With no strong winds and mild weather, many of the trees were still in their beautiful autumn colours. Behind the tea rooms are a row of ramshackle cabins, obviously where fishermen used to stay while fishing the local rivers (trophy trout rivers)- that’s the cabins in the top left photo. We continued on, stopping briefly at Athol so David could check a couple of things in the van. Never one to miss an opportunity, I quickly took some autumn shots of Athol’s St Bartholomew Church.

It’s a quick and…I was going to say smooth trip through the Devils Staircase alongside Lake Wakatipu, but that would be fibbing- the road along the lake is extremely lumpy with plenty of dips and rises where subsidence has been repaired. It felt like we were riding a roller-coaster!

Our destination is beautiful Lake Hayes, located in the rolling countryside of the Arrow Basin between Arrowtown and Queenstown. The lake is surrounded by golf courses, luxury houses, vineyards and lifestyle blocks. The Remarkables once again form a backdrop to some stunning scenery.

Lake Hayes has a small area where freedom camping is allowed for two nights only, and only between the signs. You can see the one beside us and the other one is at the far end. It’s also well known (or should be) that the Queenstown Lakes District Council rigidly police their freedom camping bylaw and rangers check the sites regularly.

There’s a walking (and cycling) track right around the lake which takes about 2-3 hrs to complete. It must be like the Mount walking track; it’s very popular and used regularly by locals for their daily exercise. A continuous parade of cyclists, walkers, pushchairs and dogs pass by our camp site. It’s very pleasant under the willows at the waters edge where there’s also a number of kayaks, canoes and paddleboards passing by.

By late afternoon a steady stream of sleeper-vans, campervans and motorhomes arrive to stay the night. The allowed space isn’t that big and would comfortably hold around 10 vehicles. By night fall there were 19 vans squeezed into the space, with a few of the smaller vehicles out the back under the willows. The two motorhomes to the right of us were outside the sign and I was worried for them. They have tried to park correctly but there is no space left (that’s when you need to find another park….or go to a campground). I know of someone that was fined for parking just outside the sign here.

There were also at least 10 other vehicles parked up for the night elsewhere in the reserve. They were either choosing to ignore the rules or were oblivious to them. More fool them. I’m not sure whether I slept through the visit on the first night or the ranger didn’t come but I know he came the next night at some un-Godly hour shining his torch on every vehicle and writing down registration numbers and checking self-containment stickers. I bet those that where elsewhere in the park woke up blissfully unaware that their numbers had been taken and a $200 fine was awaiting them when they returned home or returned their rental vans.

I was up early to catch the sunrise and found an old favourite down on the lake edge; two Australasian Crested Grebes calling to each other as they dived and fished in the shallows.

Sunrise over The Remarkables, you can see the ski field access road zig-zagging up the side- a bit of a necessary blight on the landscape.

Clouds gather over Queenstown at the end of the lake and a rainbow forms a perfect bow over the lake.

The pink sunrise glow quickly disappeared to be replaced by darkening storm clouds and big spots of rain. Thankfully it didn’t last long, which was just as well, as we only had one day to do one of our ‘must do’ road trips before we had to move on.

While we were getting ready for the day- I was cleaning my camera on the sofa and David was cooking his breakfast- I felt the van move. When I looked up, a woman had stepped up to our top step, and was holding onto the handrail, posing for a photo! The bloody cheek of it.

We often have people (mainly tourists) taking photos of the van or themselves in front of or to the side of the van but have never had someone be this rude, especially as our door was open (the screen door was closed) and we were inside. She got a short shift from me, I opened the door and said “EXCUSE ME….”  as she nearly fell off the step. Another lady came rushing over apologising profusely and then asked if she could have a photo taken! I was lost for words.

A group of about 15 people had arrived in three Jucy people mover rentals (thank God they weren’t sleeper vans), sped into the gap between our vans, tumbled out of all the doors, took dozens of photos down on the water front and under the willows, posing this way and that and then spread out around the remaining motorhomes taking photos. Then they all piled back into the cars and roared off. So keep your eye out for a marauding pack of shutter happy tourists who have no idea of personal space! I tell you, life on the road is never dull.

The rest of the day was taken up with a exhilarating drive through Skippers Canyon and visit to the remains of the Skippers gold field.

But you’ll have to wait for that blog, it deserves it’s own post.

It was another stunning sunrise the next morning but it soon clouded over.

We’d also had our two nights and it was time to move on. It’s a pity the council don’t allow three nights at Lake Hayes, this would give people two full days to do their activities. We still have a few things to do but we’ll wait until we come back through after we’ve been down to Glenorchy and Kinloch at the bottom of the lake.

We stopped at the top of the hill so I could take one last photo of what was left of the autumn colours. The willows have just about shed all their leaves and being such a dull day the colours weren’t so great.