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

Taniwha Daffodils- Waipukurau, HB

Real-time- A Bloomin' Interlude

Before our next beach stop we had a special place to see just south of Waipukurau. And, as promised by the forecasters, the weather was fast deteriorating when we arrived at Taniwha Daffodils. Although it made an interesting and dramatic backdrop for my photos and in the end, the rain didn't arrive while we were there. (Click on the photos to enlarge)

Taniwha, owned by the Mabins', is a working farm with a 100 year old homestead and 20 acres of trees, ponds and beautiful daffodils in the 'house paddock'.

Instead of baking cakes for Plunket fundraisers, Railene Mabin started selling daffodils. Today, 40 years later, all proceeds still go to Plunket.

Taniwha Daffodils is open for the month of September this year, to coincide with the blooming of the daffodils, and every day, many visitors arrive to see the stunning display of flowers.

Blue plastic buckets are supplied and you're let loose in the flower beds to go wherever the fancy takes you, and to take as long as you like. At $5 per 30 stems, you can pick as many flowers as you want. I found the temptation to pick more than my quota hard to ignore, I think if I didn't have a mobile home I'd have picked enough to have a bunch in every room of the house. And if I lived nearby, I'd have returned many times over the month. Sadly, I only had room for one bunch of sunshine.

When you've finished picking the blooms, they are wrapped in cellophane back at the shed. Be warned though, lo'behold if you've picked any buds- they'll cost you $1 a stem. The buds are probably picked by the Mabins for sale elsewhere and also, buds provide the flowers for the next week or so and if everyone picked them they'd be no blooms to see....or in Taniwha's case, a little less blooms to see. 

I'd called ahead to check if we would be able to park with the 5th-wheeler on the back, of course I'd overlooked the fact that tour buses would probably be visiting the flowers too. It wasn't an issue although we'd been advised not to leave the gravel. As if we would. Imagine that, deep muddy ruts around the flower beds!

Over the past 25 years, since the garden has been opened to the public,  Railene has planted many hundreds of different varieties of daffodils and has taken over more and more of the house paddock.

Wide grassy pathways sweep and curve around and through the flowerbeds forming lovely patterns.

I started exploring out towards the highway (above), what a beautiful sight the mass drift of daffodils must be to drivers passing by on SH2. Then I made my way past the homestead...

And along the pond behind the house, where I found...

...a Mute Swan (after finally finding my first one near Kaikoura a few months ago, this is my 3rd or 4th sighting in just a few short months!) Postering and raising his wings at me several times, he still wanted to follow me right around the pond wall. His mate was down the far end of the pond going about her business. It's a little disconcerting when, unlike their black cousins, they don't hiss a warning. You're unsure if they just like you or they're trying to get you out of their territory.

Mute swans weren't the only inhabitants of the large pond.

Daffodils as far as the eye can see.

Even though people arriving were being directed to the rear of the paddock to pick their blooms, I had the place to myself. I guess the front flowerbeds would have had a good working over with people not walking too far from the carpark to pick their flowers. But, to be fair, there were so many flowers it was hard to see where people had been anywhere through the garden.

I found a lovely bridge at the far end of the pond, a little boat house and not too many daffodils.

I slowly made my way back towards the van, criss-crossing over the small stream that flows through the property.

We visited Taniwha mid September and there were still plenty of varieties yet to flower or just starting to bloom. 

Railene Mabin also picks hundreds of bunches of flowers every morning before the gates are opened, these are sold elsewhere for Plunket. In over 25 years, $250,000 has been raised for the organisation. What an incredible contribution one family has made to a New Zealand institution close to many hearts. 

If I lived nearby I'd offer to help out with the picking, I'd love to work in amongst this lot. It would be a surprise every morning seeing what new varieties had bloomed and watching others burst into life. 

I'm sure the garden trees look lovely over summer and autumn but at this time of the year it's great that they don't steal the limelight or overshadow the daffodils. They do make interesting natural sculptures though, and on this day, perfect reflections in the ponds.

It was a bit hard to capture the flowers in-situ as they mostly had their heads pointing towards the ground. So I picked as many different daffodils as I could find on my way back to the van and then I had my 'assistant' hold each stem (these are just a few of the different varieties). That centre flower was my favourite. Who knew there were so many varieties.

A school bus with kindergarten age children and their parents had arrived at Taniwha just before we did. After they'd walked through the gardens and had lunch at the picnic tables, the children then had a lot of fun playing tag along the pathways between the beds.

In their excitement a few kids forgot the rule about not running through the flowers. They even forgot who the parents were, I got tagged a couple of times while I was taking photos!

I loved this particular section of the garden, where borders of snowdrops encircled the daffodils and a flowering cherry tree was placed in the centre of a few of the gardens. A fragrant spring perfume also filled the air.

Taniwha Daffodils celebrates the flowering season with 'Dawn in the Daffodils', an early breakfast & sunrise event on the weekend they open. And a 'Dusk in the Daffodils' evening picnic, live music & light display event, which was being held later on the day we were there. Hopefully the rain stayed away long enough for them to enjoy it all.

I took one last photo of the daffodils in front of the homestead and found a little girl not wanting to leave her new playground. She lay down behind the flowers when she saw her mum coming to get her. Imagine trying to find this tiny 'dot' amongst the blooms.

I carried on up the driveway as David pulled out...

...so I could get a photo of us at the entrance gate. What a beautiful property and such a generous family.