Moody Mavora & Snowy Garston

Catch-up (early October 2019)

From the DOC camp at Cascade Creek on the Milford Road we returned to the NZMCA Park at Te Anau for a few days. After a week out of range, it was good to have cell phone & internet reception again before we headed to our next destination Mavora Lakes- one of our favourite South Island destinations- which is also out of range. 

The road to the lakes leaves the main highway about halfway between Te Anau & Mossburn and from there, there's 'just' 34kms of gravel to travel until you reach the lakes turnoff which is then followed by another 8kms of gravel to the lakes; past South Mavora and onto North Mavora Lake.

For the first 15kms or so we travel in an unseen grader's freshly scraped track. We not-so-quietly curse as clouds of dry dust billow out behind us. Sometimes you just can't win; another couple of days and the dust would have settled and the road would have been silky smooth. I guess dust is better than being rattled to death by the corrugations although we have them to contend with for the last half of the journey.

Never mind, our favourite camping spot is free which isn't really a surprise, only the hardy (or crazy) camp at the lakes at the tail end of winter when the weather swings between bitterly cold & freezing cold.   

North Mavora Lake & Mt Cerberus

That would be hardy people, crazy people or hardy crazy hunter people. There's a hunter's camp up the back of the plateau, tucked into and sheltered by the thick bush. There are a couple of pig dogs in a kennel beside a horse float and down in the horse paddock I can see two horses. 

As soon as they spot me, they gallop over to the fence for a chat & a pat and then follow me along the fence line hoping I have something tasty for them. I don't, there's just dry grass and more dry grass.   

I'm keen to cross the swingbridge and check out the bush for Robins/Toutouwai & Rifleman/Titiponamu...

...but all I manage to find is one lonely robin who watches me expectantly, hoping I'm going to scrape some leaf litter for him. Of course I oblige.

It really was bitterly cold. As night closes in, snow starts to fall and David is not impressed. He's turning into a fair weather fisherman. The snow doesn't amount to much and is gone by dawn. Thank God for our diesel heaters, we're kept toasty warm inside.

The next day I walk up to the plateau behind and disappear into the bush...

...there are a few more Robins up here but still no sign of any riflemen. In fact the bush is very quiet, perhaps it's just too cold for them and they've moved deeper into the bush seeking shelter.

I break apart a rotten log and several birds are very keen to see what I've unearthed. Although not so keen to share as they chase each other about trying to keep the spoils for themselves.

Several more 'crazy' people have arrived overnight, one parked up in the wide expanse of tussock on the lake shore below Mt Cerberus...

...and the other sheltering in the trees near the fire pits. 

David has been reluctant to get the inflatable boat out, it has been very cold & windy, and the forecast is for more wind and heavy snow. We'd also had some unsettling news from family on the way in that had us distracted and with no cellphone reception, we'd started to worry that we really should be in range. 

So when we woke the next morning, and with the weather no better, we made the decision to head on out.  

We'll leave Mavora Lakes for the summer this time. 

South Mavora Lake & the road out

We decided to head to the NZMCA Lowburn Park at Cromwell, somewhere where we could settle for a few days and re-plan our next few weeks. We needed to stay around the lower half of the South Island in case our Southland family needed us to head back to Winton to look after the house & cat if they were suddenly called away.

On the way to Cromwell we stopped for a night at one of our favourite (and 'secret') freedom camping sites near Garston.

Brightwater & Castle Hill, Garston

Although we missed the 'Closed due to Lambing' sign on the way in, seeing it on the passenger side of the road the next morning on our way out. Oops! We'd both been reading the trout fishery sign on the driver's side instead.  We also didn't see any sheep until the next morning, they must have been hiding under the willows at the far end of the paddock.

But we did see the neighbours walking their goats. The goats were having a great time too, snatching mouthfuls of grass, running to catch up, kicking up their feet and racing ahead of the others. 

It was once again bitterly cold overnight, our diesel heaters working overtime until we went to bed. We very rarely need to leave them on overnight due to the van's insulation and our winter bedding.

Sometime during the early hours of the morning I heard the familiar gentle splatter of snow on the roof. I silently hoped we'd be snowed in for a few days but on opening the door the next morning there was just a thin layer covering the ground. 

Never mind, it was still a wonderful sight and a winter wonderland 'Out There'. I love waking to snow, being 'johnny-on-the-spot' and able to step outside in my dressing gown & gumboots to take photos, all within 5 minutes of getting out of bed.

The Mataura River had turned a dirty brown, rain has obviously fallen in the back country.

Here's the stock bridge the afternoon before the snow fall (this bridge is my favourite piece of farm equipment in all of New Zealand) 

Thick cloud gave way to blue sky...

... and the snow started to disappear before my eyes.

And by the time we were ready to pull out the snow had gone and dark clouds had rolled back in.

Sculptures In Stone - Castle Hill

We left Lake Pearson on the last leg of our journey across the middle of the South Island, from the West Coast to the east heading for our next destination, Christchurch.

The road snakes through the dry Canterbury High Country with it’s rugged mountains, jagged bluffs and scree slides, as we head into the Castle Hill Basin and it’s distinctive limestone rock formations.

Castle Hill Basin lies between the Torlesse & Craigieburn Ranges and we stop at Castle Hill Village for a quick look. The village began as a development back in the early 1980s when the owner of Castle Hill Station wanted to create an alpine village beneath the Craigieburn Range as a centre for recreational activities in the area.

The houses are mainly holiday homes and there are no shops in the village. But there are four ski-fields within easy reach, a range of walking and tramping tracks throughout the nearby Craigieburn Forest Park & the Torlesse Tussocklands Park. And along with caving at the Cave Stream Reserve and rock climbing at the Castle Hill & Flock Hill limestone boulder fields, there’s plenty of outdoor activities to keep you occupied.

This ‘sculpture’ sits on the roadside near the entrance to the village- I took a photo for Dad; his golf club in Napier has some huge old tree trunks carved into golfing figures sitting alongside the road. The club paid a few thousand dollars to have them carved- and look they could have saved a few dollars had they seen this guy first (looks like he’s scored a hole-in-one). A $2 hat from Dollar Shop, a bit of bark scraped off and Bob’s your uncle!

Our next stop is just down the road at the well known Castle Hill (Kura Tawhiti) limestone formations. The beautiful and barren Torlesse Range forms a stunning backdrop to the carpark.

We head off towards the boulder pile at the end of the path- they don’t look that big from back here. The rock formations are the water eroded remains of limestone, formed 30-40 million years ago when much of present day New Zealand was covered by the sea.

A track leads off from the main path to a jumble of boulders but we decided to continue on to the main attraction.

While taking a photo I was overtaken by what appeared to be half a dozen ‘Sponge Bob Square Pants’. Disappointingly they turned out to be just plain old rock climbers. That’s their folded crash pads on their backs- although they look rather thin, I don’t think I’d trust falling onto them.

There are hundreds of rocks and dozens of big boulders in this pile.

We decide to follow the climbers along the front of the huge rocks, we might get to see them do some climbing. Now we’re up close we can see how large the rocks are; there are people dancing about on top up there.

We turn a corner and see the Sponge Bobs are disappearing up another steep path and heading to a boulder pile way off in the distance. We decide this will be as far as we go.

David heads up to a fenced off rock to check it out. People have been carving their names in it although I’m not sure whether that’s the reason it's fenced (I mean initials could be carved anywhere in any of the rocks if you so wanted), perhaps it’s unstable. Or perhaps there's some old Maori rock art on it that we failed to see.

I leave David to wander back the way we came while I walk around to the back of the rocks, it's here that I can finally see why the rocks were named Castle Hill, they look like the rocky remains of an old ruined castle.

It’s quite a distance to walk along the back and up on to the rocks at the end and I hope I can get back to the beginning through the back way. Here at the back, you can see that the exposed rocks have a more honey-combed effect from the erosion. You can also see how large the area is; I’ve walked along the fenceline from the back left and up onto the rocks at this end.

Up on top here, it’s quite wide with many tracks in and out of the boulders. There are two school groups visiting and they have ‘disappeared’ in amongst the rocks. One group is playing hide & seek, and the seekers are finding it just about impossible to locate their mates. I’d say it would be very hard to find anybody especially when it came time to call them to leave. Can you spot them?

I’m not sure how much the kids were learning but they were sure having fun in this natural playground.

Although it’s autumn and the day was rather hot, it was still a surprise to find a couple sunbathing on their towels in the lee of a large rock.

I found my way back to the front where David was waiting for me and we made headed back to the carpark. Castle Hill reminded me of the Elephant Rocks we saw last year near Duntroon, although these were on a far grander scale; well worth a visit but give yourself plenty of time to explore.

Our next stop was for lunch at one of the last of the high country lakes along the highway, Lake Lyndon. There’s a freedom camping area here but I’m not so sure it's very welcoming at this time of the year. Talk about a barren, windswept and very dried up lake. I have seen photos of it in the spring though, with snow capped mountains behind, wild flowers in full bloom across the lake front and water fowl feeding along the edge. Never judge a book by it’s cover.

At least it made a fine canvas to show off the rig!

Replete, and keen to hit the road, we headed off to Christchurch, dropping down out of the high country and out across the Canterbury Plains.

Athol in Autumn

Once our van was repaired & good to go we were keen to get back on the road after our unscheduled stop in Te Anau. Funnily enough, we had the most beautifully appointed & large motel unit at Radfords, but we both commented that we felt trapped in an unmovable square box, albeit a box with a luxury spa bath! Life on the road has definitely worked its way under our skin and travelling is now firmly in the blood.

After a busy two weeks in Milford doing so many different activities we decided to head back to Athol for a few days to “re-group” and get some R&R in a familiar place. You will remember we stayed in Athol while we waited to do the 4WD Safari over Nokomai Station. We parked up on the same site as before with the great view over the paddocks and river and beyond to East Dome, although this time the grass was a little drier & the willows had started to turn colour & lose their  leaves, autumn is definitely in residence & rain is badly needed. When Pam (our host) arrived later in the day she exclaimed “:You’re back!, I knew as soon as I saw the van from down the road it was you guys”

For the next few days we relaxed a little, did a couple of short tiki-tours around the district, David went fishing & I continued catching up on my photos and blog posts from Milford; it was great to just relax & enjoy the sun.

You may also remember my blog post on the Vege Shed. Of course we couldn’t pass without calling in again to stock up on free range eggs, vegetables, lamb & venison. As you do. We also heard that on the following Sunday, Trailer SixtySix, an iconic Airstream food caravan was setting up outside the Shed serving coffee & light meals. We marked that down in our busy schedule and headed there for lunch not long after having our regular cooked Sunday brunch!

The coffee & food were superb, I ordered the Slow Cooked Shanks in Red Wine Sauce & Ciabatta Roll & David had the Slow Roasted Lamb Sandwich.  We had a great hour or so chatting to all the locals that were calling in & then the caravan owners who were English migrants who had come to NZ from London about 6 years ago and settled in tiny Garston.

Bart puts his order in-  "Ummmm......I'll have the....the crispy, streaky bacon.....no wait, a venison slider......."

The owners are hoping to set the caravan up in Garston where the National Cycle Trail will pass through the township. They should do good there along with their B&B in the same settlement. The cycle trail is following the old Kingston Flyer rail corridor and all along the road we could see ground works & preparations going on. We could also smell the preparations; every morning in the cold still autumn air a pall of smoke rose high into the sky drifting along in the breeze from the bonfires along the path as they burnt the cleared undergrowth.

The signs of autumn were everywhere, roadside bushes dripping in berries and rosehips, the ground under the chestnut trees was covered in husks & nuts, & on the dull days the beautiful golden elms brightened up the gardens.

Under the autumn coloured trees in a roadside reserve near Garston were dozens of bright red & orange toadstools.

Garston’s claim to fame-

Once David had fished the section of the Mataura River which ran behind the campsite we drove up past Garston to Brightwater to check the river out up there. He found a couple of guys on the riverbank enjoying a beer. They were from Auckland & on a fishing holiday & not having too much luck. But they did tell us about the Brightwater Spring which was just over the river and through the paddock.

We waded across the river and scanned the paddock, it looked to reach right over to Castle Hill without a break. We followed the fenceline across the grass for a few hundred metres until we came to this beautiful stream that cut across our path and joined the river further down. The water was very cold & gin clear, the stream bed was a mass of small coloured stones and the water plants (I don’t like to call them river weed they were so beautiful) were an array of brilliant greens gently swaying in the flow. The odd trout that we spotted quickly hid.

We turned up the stream and followed it for some distance looking for the source. We found a couple of fairly large areas where the water was bubbling out of the ground & joining the stream but we kept going hoping to come across the actual beginning of the water flow. Unfortunately boggy ground and a heavy barb wire fence halted our progress.

Part of the spring

We decided we couldn’t go any further so turned back towards the river taking a more direct route across the grass. And that was when we found dozens and dozens of horse mushrooms. Individuals, groups of 3 or 4 and huge fairy rings to match the size of the mushrooms. I didn’t have a bag with me so I filled the hood of my jacket, pulling the drawstring firm to hold them. There were so many that I could afford to be selective, only taking the buttons, which looked more like door knobs, and the large new clean ones. Mushroom soup for dinner that night, followed by chicken & mushroom casserole the next & mushroom tart on the third. You wouldn’t guess that I’m not that fussed on mushrooms but I can’t miss an opportunity of making use of nature’s bounty.

We didn’t need to get our feet wet again when we got back to the river further downstream. This old "bailey stock bridge” was in place, it made for a great photo subject. I’ve never seen one quite like this before, I would think the farmer would have to shift it before heavy rain or winter arrives. It could quite easily be washed downstream.

Just north of Garston I spied this rustic woolshed which looked great against the backdrop of Castle Hill.

Right next door were a large flock of sheep looking very white against the green grass, they’d obviously just been shorn.
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The next day when we came past the woolshed yards were alive with more shorn sheep. A classic & iconic New Zealand scene. I joined a carload of people who were taking photos too.

And finally it was time to hitch up and say goodbye to one of our favourite camp sites. The campground is closed over winter due to the cold conditions and the water freezing in the pipes but Pam has said we’re most welcome to park over anytime as we can use our own facilities. I’m sure we’ll be back again but I have a feeling it won’t be during the winter.