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

We're Back in the South Island- Blenheim; Part 1

Real-time

Our first night in the South Island was spent parked beside a vineyard, on the side of a river and all by ourselves. It was good to back.

Damfam Vineyard

But first we had to cross Cook Strait. It rained for much of the night and with a 9am sailing and 13kms to travel from Petone in the morning rush hour, we were pleased when we were ready to leave ahead of schedule. There was a moment of panic though when we found the exit gate at the Workingmen's Club locked. Luckily we were able to squeeze the rig around the sharp corner of the building and exit through the entry gate which was open. In typical Evans style we were first in the queue at the closed gate just before 7am. And first in line to board (although they took the row beside us first).

With a winter storm behind us and another one forecast ahead of us, I had picked a small window of calm weather to cross and thankfully my careful scanning of wind warnings and wave height predictions proved correct and we had a very smooth crossing even though it rained all the way. The mist hung low over the hills as we cruised down Queen Charlotte Sound and when I did venture outside just to check I wasn't missing anything, a pod of dolphins surfaced nearby and rode the wake for a short time! Great timing.

We took the Interislander Lounge Plus option ($45pp) for the second time, which we're finding is a great way to travel. All food & drink is free (we had breakfast, morning tea & lunch), there's a comfy lounge, free wifi and no children. The cost is not much more than we'd spend anyway because we usually purchase breakfast and a coffee.

From Picton we drove the short distance to Damfam Vineyard (CAP #7011) on the banks of  Wairau River near Blenheim. 

We were the only ones staying and it was a lovely peaceful start to our South Island travels. The cooler morning temperatures also reminded us of the cold winter ahead.

 I was also pleased to be back 'Out There' in the open shooting magnificent sunsets again.

We were thrilled to see a bird feeding platform beside the vineyard & not too far from the van. Our hosts feed the local hawks regularly over winter and occasionally during summer to encourage them to stay and scare off the small birds that feed on the grapes during the season. 

Australasian Hawks/Kahu are notoriously shy and are often very hard to get close up photos of. I was able to sneak up on them a couple of times as they were otherwise occupied. They also didn't like eating off the high platform, in the wild it's safer for them to eat on the ground and they can also hide from other birds after their food. Occasionally they'd manage to pull pieces off the carcass and carry it off to the long grass or between the rows of vines to eat.

I followed the Wairau River down to the end of the road where it flows into a huge lagoon and crosses the Wairau Bar into Cloudy Bay. Alongside the track the rusting hull of the TSS Kennedy (1864-1929) provides a good lookout for the local flock of Pied Shags/Kawau. The Kennedy was scuttled to form part of the breakwater for what was once a wharf; rotting piles are now all that's left.

I walked to the end of the breakwater and onto the rocks and was amazed at the amount of water flowing out to sea. I'm not a fan of rushing water and here was no exception. It was very scary watching how fast it was travelling, swirling around in angry pools and catching on the rocks just below me before rushing out over the bar.

Next I went to check out the mouth of the Wairau Diversion which was completed in 1963 to help with Wairau River's flood control. The Diversion carries the water directly across country to the sea whereas the river meanders for several kilometres before it reaches the Bar. There's a large freedom camping site at the Diversion and during the whitebait season the area is full of seasoned campers.

As I was leaving the reserve I spotted alot of activity out in the middle of the river. A large flock of shags; I counted at least 30, were swimming downstream, ducking and diving, chasing & fighting their way very fast towards the outlet. 

They were chasing a school of fish (they look like yellow-eyed mullet) and nearly everytime a shag surfaced it had a large fish in it's bill. And if it didn't it chased its neighbour across the water for his. These are not good photos, I was quite a distance from the birds and they were moving very fast in the flow but look at the photo bottom left, 3 birds with a fish each and one shag behind chasing fast.

Back on the main road at Tuamarina is a memorial and information board in a road side reserve. In 1843 a nortorious & tragic incident occured here. Known as The Wairau Affray or The Wairau Incident it was the first significant armed conflict between Maori & British settlers after the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. Twenty two Europeans (18 killed as utu after surrendering) and four Maori were killed in the conflict. Click on the photo to enlarge if you wish to read about the incident.

Afterwards I crossed the road and drove up to the cemetery on the hill above the memorial to find another memorial to some of those killed (I'm not sure if they are buried here). Be warned if you do visit, it's a tiny narrow road with a couple of  sharp corners & not suitable for anything other than a car. The multi layered cemetery itself must be one of the most well tended and tidy cemeteries I've visited, it also has a stunning outlook over the farmland and vineyards below and out to the coast.

I found another interesting memorial opposite the primary school at the bottom of the hill as I left the cemetery. Beside the memorial were a couple of bench seats where people could sit quietly or perhaps read a book, very fitting considering Eileen Duggan was a poet & writer. It's always interesting finding out where New Zealand's famous sons & daughters have come from. Not that I'd heard of Eileen before seeing the memorial, but then it's fun to learn of their history.

The Tides Run Up The Wairau – Eileen Duggan 

The tides run up the Wairau 

That fights against their flow. 

My heart and it together 

Are running salt and snow. 

For though I cannot love you, 

Yet, heavy, deep, and far, 

Your tide of love comes swinging, 

Too swift for me to bar. 

Some thought of you must linger, 

A salt of pain in me 

For oh what running river 

Can stand against the sea? 

After a pleasant few days at Damfam Vineyard we headed off towards Kaikoura, keen to drive SH1 for the first time since it had reopened after repairs following the devastating November 2016 Kaikoura earthquake. 

We did have to pull over for a photo stop just south of Blenheim though. The last few times we have passed by this historic Cob Cottage it has been surrounded by scaffolding as it was painted (it survived the earthquake undamaged). The cottage was built between 1854 & 1868 for the local Riverlands runholder and has been used as a farm cottage, shearers’ quarters, school, a store room and hay shed during its lifetime.

To be continued...

Molesworth- Part 2; Cob Cottage Camp

Real-time

Continued on from Part 1

So that's where it got it's name... 

The DOC Cob Cottage camp is in a large paddock that includes the cottage. It's a basic camp with a couple of very clean long-drop loos and a water tap.  With the camp to ourselves we had the choice of sites.

We parked up beside the stream, back off the dusty road and away from the willows; perfect!

According to the Station cook (who visited a couple of times to give one of the farm dogs a swim), the Molesworth Stream is a very popular place to cool off in the summer. There's a nice deep pool called the 'spa pool' at the bottom of the waterfall (off to the left here). It's also the home of a few eels, while I was standing in the water on the edge with my tripod set up to take this shot one came along to check out who was disturbing the peace! Luckily I had my gumboots on and not my jandals!

There's also a reason to visit Molesworth in autumn too, across the stream and along the steep banks of the stream are dozens of wild gooseberry bushes! They have spread far and wide through the high country, I saw plenty of bushes along the Acheron River and Molesworth Road too. Most probably brought in by early settlers and spread by birds and hungry horsemen! 

The historic Molesworth Cob Cottage was built by a runholder as a single room hut in 1866 and extended several years later when it became the homestead for the station until the current homestead was built in 1885. For a long period the cottage provided accommodation for musterers and rabbiters, DOC now look after and maintain the cottage.

There are numerous information boards on Molesworth Station inside the two room cottage along with a few old furnishings. And several families of starlings, who frightened the life out of me as I opened the door into the darkened room- they made a dash for it, flapping and squawking, like a scene from Alfred Hitchcock's 'The Birds'!

There's a short walk up the hill behind the cottage, through the 'kissing gate' and across a paddock...

...which takes the walker to a viewpoint out over today's farm settlement nestled in a shallow basin below Mt Chisholm (1518m). Mt Chisholm was named in honour of the 1942-78 farm manager Bill Chisholm whose foresight and ability helped turn Molesworth from a severely eroded sheep run into a profitable and sustainable pastoral beef farm. The nearby Rachel Range is named after his wife.

This is as close as you can get to the historic farm buildings of Molesworth Station; it's working farm and the manager and farm workers need their privacy. Molesworth Homestead is on the far left, the cooks house is on the right at the rear (don't forget to click the photos to enlarge- use your back arrow to return to the blog).

The information board names the various buildings but you need to 'twist' it to the left 90% to place the buildings correctly. Some are hidden behind the mass of leafy willows above.

The farm's stockyards are on the edge of the camp...

...and as the cattle and calves had recently been mustered in for something major- they were in the yard paddocks for most of the weekend- cattle, farm workers and dogs passed by often. 

I was also lucky enough to take a ride with the Camp Host around to one of the farm cottages- called the Molesworth Ministerial- which is in the settlement, it's used for accommodation for DOC employees that are working on the Station. So I was able to take a few shots from within the compound down below.

The view back to camp from the lookout is spectacular on such a blue sky day; you can see the 5th-wheeler tucked in behind the poplars in the background. David is trying to track a number of skylark's that we flushed while walking up the track. Some of them are singing to us from way up above, others are back on the ground weaving their way through the grass trying to distract him from looking for their nests. 

Two beautiful horses spotted me from down below and came galloping around the edge of the hill looking for us as we disappeared back down the track. They were in great condition although they both needed a bit of mane work, it hung over their faces and down their necks when they stopped to for a pat. 

There is a DOC Camp at both ends of the Molesworth Road; Cob Cottage & Acheron House, and they are manned by camp hosts right through the season. Many of the hosts are RV owners and NZMCA members and they either stay in the Ranger cabins or in their own vans. The cabin is beside the gate onto the Molesworth Road; they keep an eye on the camp, vehicles coming and going, clean the loos, answer questions and lock the gates each evening. The road is open from 7am to 7pm.

It was on our first night (Friday) in camp that we learnt the road was closed until Monday, which was a bit of a shock. Of course we knew the road was closed at the Clarence bridge washout but we were only intending to drive to there and then return to camp. I had phoned the DOC office in Blenheim to double check before we had left too.  And while the person did tell me that there might be a bit of traffic on the road because they were undertaking a 1080 poison drop over part of the Station for Bovine TB possum control, they didn't say the road would actually be closed. 

It was just as well that we had no time constraints, we had planned to have a rest day on the Saturday after the drive in, then do the Molesworth Road on Sunday and head out a day or two later. So waiting one more day was going to be neither here nor there, although I was anxious the stunning weather we were having was going to break.

A few trucks and other vehicles passed through camp each day while helicopters flew overhead at daybreak heading for the drop zone. On Sunday afternoon once the drop had finished at least 25-30 vehicles headed back past us. We saw all manner of vehicles and trailers, large & small carrying so much equipment including 20 or so large hoppers and 2-3 small 'dozers. It was hard to believe there was so many people and so much activity happening in such a isolated area. 

As it turned out we couldn't drive the road until Tuesday because they had to walk a 6km section of the road that was within the drop zone, checking for and removing any bait that had landed on the road. The road opened about 2pm but it was far too late to attempt the return drive so we waited until the next day. 

In the meantime I made the most of fantastic scenery surrounding the camp...

I drove back up the road for the photo above and on the way spotted a couple of hares up to no good. One spotted me and hopped off (literally) before they both hopped away to hide behind some bare brambles. Realising that I could still see them they disappeared over the bank behind the fence.

I crept up slowly and looked over the edge...it didn't take this one long to decide he was outta there, the other one had already disappeared. We must have seen at least two dozen hares during our road time in the high country yet we only spotted two baby rabbits in all the time we were there. 

One morning I looked out and there were two big bunnies feeding on the grass outside the van, they shot off like scalded cats when they spotted me. I wondered about their babies, I've never see a baby hare (known as a leveret for the first year). Unlike rabbits, baby hares can run within a few minutes of being born so I think they must hide in the undergrowth until they are weaned. I do find them quite strange creatures, they just look too big for their bodies, wise beyond their years and cute but not really, if that makes sense. 

Here are some more photos from around camp, these ones were just down the Molesworth Road a few kilometres.

A hidden pond near the river

A much smaller Awatere River flows through Molesworth; you'll recall from the first blog, this is the river we followed all the way up the Awatere Valley (or is that down... the river flows down which is north but the valley goes up which is south...doesn't make sense).

The Molesworth Station airfield and buildings are across the river from the camp. The snow-capped mountains are part of the Inland Kaikoura Range.

I climbed the hill behind the camp and followed the fence along...

 ...to a bluff high above the river, looking across the airfield to the mountains behind.

I sat there for a long while soaking up the magnificent views, and the peace and solitude. 

David filled in some of his downtime by waterblasting the Ranger, he was very pleased with himself that he was able to blast away much of the dust that had coated the paintwork and filled every nook and cranny on the way in. He didn't mind that it was going to be coated again just as quick; at least he knew the first layers were gone. 

With the water blaster plugged into the generator, a small water pump running off the dinghy pump battery and the hose submerged in the stream he was able to give the ute a good going over without using too many precious resources.

As is often the case in the high country, the days are hot and sunny with clear blue skies, then as evening approaches the storm clouds roll in threatening thunder and rain...

...which also means there's a chance of a great sunset.

Then night falls, the wind drops, the clouds depart and millions of stars come out to play...

...and so did Shellie. I had the perfect location to do some night shots and have a bit of fun and games with light painting. 

Light painting is a photographic technique where shots are made by moving a hand-held light source (usually a torch) over or around the subject while taking a long exposure photograph. It's not as easy as it sounds and takes quite a bit of trial and error to get photos you're happy with.

The ghost of Molesworth Cottage- the trick is to not capture a shadow of yourself in the exposure, to get in there fast and back before the your outline has been captured; 

It also helps if your torch doesn't have a mind of its own and decides to switch modes to red flashing or pulsing in the middle of a shot. 

I also captured  a number of shooting stars.

As per usual, when I'm out shooting I lose all sense of time (it often gets me into trouble). At least this time David only had to look outside to find me....if he'd been awake. I went out just after 9pm and was more than a little surprised to find it was 1am when I stepped back in the door!

To be continued... (and the one you've been waiting for, The Road) Part 3