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

Another Dam, Done and Dusted- Central Otago

Catch-up

From Lowburn we headed through the Cromwell Gorge to one of our regular Central Otago camping spots, a great freedom camping site (3 nights max) which is provided by Contact Energy and is not on many apps. 

The reserve is just above the huge Clutha Power Station overlooking the calm waters of the Clutha River and is perfect for a few days relaxation away from the hustle & bustle of small town provincial life.

We've been here in the autumn & the summer, this was our first time in the middle of winter and and unfortunately the weather was dismal (our first, and as it turned out only grey days for all of our winter in Central). Fog settled around us for much of the three days and when it did lift, heavy grey clouds hung off the surrounding mountains. 

We couldn't see the water at the back of the van for most of one day, the fog was so thick (middle right). I was impressed with the lady from the motorhome parked beside us though, she went off paddling in the fog, up the dam for over an hour (middle left). Each evening local rowers came to practice, gliding swiftly and silently through the still water. 

And when the fog did lift for a short time mid afternoon one day we felt sorry for the people in Clyde, down below the dam, the township stayed blanketed in fog until after nightfall and probably through the night.

If you'd like to read more about the Contact Energy camping site & the damming of the Clutha River, my earlier blog is here.  And in that blog link you'll also read about another dam that we visited back then, the much smaller Conroys Dam which is used for irrigation and is located in the hills behind Alexandra. 

There was one more dam nearby that we wanted to visit the next time we were in town so we decided to shake the cabin-fever off and head into the hills. I would have preferred blue sky & fluffy white clouds for my photos but sometimes you've just got to work with what you've got. And I guess there's nothing better than 50 shades of brown & grey to convey how barren, bleak and uninviting winter in Central can occasionally be.

Dry Weather Track to Fraser Dam

Fraser Dam is one of the many Central Otago irrigation dams that were built during the depression to supply water to the large farm stations, orchards and other properties in the province. The dam is located in the foothills of Old Man Range up behind Earnscleugh and is reached by driving a 13km gravel and clay track. And as per normal, gravel (and dusty) roads usually feel like double the distance.

Panorama overlooking the Manuherikia Valley and Alexandra (centre right, click to enlarge the photo).

The road climbs sharply out of the Clutha River basin and the views behind us open up. Raggedy Range (my favourite range name in all of the South) is the prominent hill in this photo below, behind that is the Ida valley. Poolburn & Upper Manorburn are at the back to the right.

My favourite range, snow capped Hawkdun Range is at the far end of the valley.

This is looking west; at the back on the right you can just see Leaning Rock, a tiny nipple atop a mountain in the Dunstan Range. Right below that is the Clyde Dam & our camp. On the left you can see the Fraser Dam Road winding it's way over the hills. 

Towards the end, the road it branches into two, one climbs up and over Old Man Range and on the horizon at the top we can see a digger working away. While we are stopped a guy in a ute comes towards us, he tells us we can drive up there if we want but beyond the digger it's very boggy. 

The digger is repairing the track for the heavy vehicles that are using the road at the moment. A new power station is being built at the top of the Fraser River Gorge (3km upstream from the dam) and they are using the road for access. We decide to continue on along the lower track to the dam wall. He tells us to look out for deer at the next track junction as he's seen plenty as he drives between the top and the bottom of the power station site regularly. 

We don't see any, but that could be because he's just roared along the road ahead of us! We slip and slide down the last hundred metres of track to the dam wall, hoping it won't be too bad when we climb back out. 

David heads off along the wall with his binoculars; he's now hunting for deer on the slopes over the far side of the dam.

The dam wall is 32m high and 137m in length, the catchment area of the dam is 119km².

I walk out to the gate on the dam wall, take a few photos looking up to the top of the lake...

...and when I look back I see David, ever hopeful, still scanning for deer. We've been in some very remote places in our travels and while we have seen deer on a few occasions (even in some not so remote places), we've always thought that we should have seen more than we have. We always live in hope.

We scramble back up the track, bouncing and sliding through the mud. Water seeps out of the hundreds of burns in the ranges and when it crosses the tracks they can soon turn into deep bogs, especially if they've been helped a little by heavy duty 4WD vehicles.

Back on dry land we take the next turn and head to the top of the dam, a DOC (Department of Conservation) sign tells us it's 2km to the Shek Harn Historic Reserve.

Shek Harn is Cantonese for ‘big stone ditch’, and the historic reserve has remains of early alluvial gold workings and Chinese dwellings. Apparently the most impressive is the Long House, located 2km up the Fraser River from the dam. We decided we'd come back in warmer weather to walk the track. 

We started to drive up the new road/track that has been put in for the construction vehicles to reach the bottom of the power station but after passing one too many signs saying 'No Entry', we chickened out, did a 30 point turn and returned to the reserve for lunch. You can see the early signs of the dam construction in the Google map at the end of the blog, I've put a marker point in.

The view back over the dam on the way down to the reserve.

It was a such bitterly cold day, we were jumping about from one foot to the other trying to keep warm as we had our hot soup and sandwiches.

David then had a quick scout for trout along the river, nothing to be seen though...

...and then we headed back to the main track, stopping on the edge of a steep drop to look over the dam, it's a little distorted here. This is 5 photos stitched together, I think I needed another 2 or 3 to get the right angle although the dam does have a curve in it.

On the way back down I spotted a small pond that I thought would make a good foreground subject in a photo so my ever patient husband stopped once again...

...which was probably just as well because around the next corner & thankfully a wider section of the road came this beast!

We were able to pull over into the grass to let him past but as you can see we wouldn't have had much room had we met him on a narrower section.

Any further down and we may have met him on one of the many blind corners.

I took one last photo overlooking Alexandra and used the opportunity to make sure there were no more trucks coming up the road and then we were back down and heading home. Another dam, done and dusted.