Macraes Giants- Otago; Part 2

Continued on from Part 1

After walking around the wetland we carried on through Macraes heading north, not too sure if we'd go much further as it was getting late. We'd given up on looking for lizards, we'd not found any suitable habitats since leaving the rocky tors back at the beginning of the road. We thought we'd take a drive down Golden Point Road, just out of town, to the old historic stamper battery reserve towards the end of the road.

But we got sidetracked. It was a huge surprise to come up over the hill just out of Macraes to find ourselves in the middle of a huge mine, with a massive dirty grey haul road passing under our road bridge...

...and a sign pointing the way to an observation and lookout point. Of course we had to take a look.

We parked beside one humongous spare tyre- our fifth-wheel? 

Unfortunately the wind was whipping through the site and the dust and grit being blown about was diabolical. David was not very happy that he and the rig were being sand-blasted every few seconds. 

Luckily the track lead to an Observation Hut with large glass windows overlooking the huge open cast mine pit (click to enlarge). Check out the size of the 'little' ute behind the truck on the right.

Oceana Gold's Macraes Mine is New Zealand's largest gold producing mine, producing over 4 million ounces of gold to date. The area leased by the mine covers around 27,500 hectares. There are two mines, Macraes Open Pit which has been operating since 1990 and Frasers Underground which began in 2008. Frasers is 740 metres below surface and 200 metres below sea level, with over 48 kilometres of tunnel drives.

The majority of of haul trucks used at the mine are CAT 789Cs, there are 18 in use and we watch as a steady stream of them climb up the road full, disappearing around the back of the administration buildings and returning sometime later empty. You can see a mine portal in the background of this shot.

Here are some facts for you- the tray can carry 191 tonnes of rock, that's about 91,680 shovel loads or 7,640 wheelbarrow loads of rock. 

It takes about two and half minutes or 4-5 scoops to fully load the tray. It would take a man 382 hours or nearly 10 working weeks to fully load a 789C tray with a shovel.

More facts- 

Overall Height- 6.2mtrs, Length- 12.2mtrs, Width- 7.7mtrs

Operating Weight- 317,520 kgs

Empty Weight- 126.48 tonnes

Gross Power- 1750rpm:18sec

Fuel Tank Capacity- 3,218 litres

Engine Horsepower- 1900hp

Maximum Speed on 12% gradient- 10kph

Each Tyre costs $35,000

Here's a closer view of the size comparison between a standard vehicle and a haul truck. Note the bendy fibreglass pole with orange flag attached to the smaller truck (a bit like the ones we had on our bikes when we were kids). We passed a few utes with them attached back near a mine at Piano Flat, they looked quite strange waving about high in the air, driving along on a normal road at 100kph. Of course they need them on the mine roads so the big boys don't run over the top of them!

In amongst the haul trucks was an equally huge water tanker driving continuously up and down the haul road damping down the dust (we needed him up the top) and making a very slick surface for the trucks to pass over. 

The water tanker has a massive 52,000 litre capacity, it stopped beside a small pond on the haul road and took about a minute to fill, and then it was off again.

Imagine the cleaning job on any vehicles that travel this road. Although if you were behind him in your little truck you'd get an instant car wash when he tuned on the jets!

We never saw another vehicle while on the Macraes Flat Road so I'm sure we must have been the mine workers only entertainment for the day, especially driving around with our home on the back (or perhaps it was because I was hanging out the window taking photos as we crossed back over the bridge). 

We got a few toots (or should I say honks) from the drivers as they passed underneath on their way to the processing plant which is quite a distance from the mine.

We headed off down Golden Point Road- farmland on one side and reclaimed mining land on the other, most of it a huge terraced hill. At one point a bulldozer was smoothing out the side of a new tailings hill, and on a very steep angle too.

Towards the end of the sealed road we came across the processing plant, this is what we could see from way across the valley on the way in.

And there, approaching the plant from behind were the haul truck, water tanker and 'little' truck that had passed under the bridge while I was taking photos. Their road was more direct.

I took a screenshot of the Google aerial map over the top of the mine, it's pretty impressive and frightening ugly at the same time. Although as David, who hates all the old historic mine tailings and what they've done to the landscape says, at least this will be left clean, tidy and environmentally friendly when they finish.....even if a couple of hills have been moved in the process and a giant bird has been left behind to pacify the locals!  (Click the map at the bottom of the blog if you'd like to see more detail)

We didn't make it to the historic battery, just after the processing plant the road turned to gravel and dropped down into a gorge, the wind was still blowing hard, it was hot, dry and dusty and we were getting weary, so we turned around and headed out. Back along the Macraes Flat Road, heading back towards Hyde, wondering where we might bed down for the night.

Well, it just happens that while I was taking photos of that old iron bridge on the way in, I spied...

...a couple of potential freedom camping sites off a gravel track alongside the river...

...which was how we found ourselves sandwiched between tinder dry overgrown grass with several beehives as neighbours for the night. I didn't have the heart to tell David we were parked on the track from the ford over the river. I figured they'd be no large farm machinery crossing over at this time of the day. Although the farm traffic that 'flew' along the track in front of us did a double take.

Orokonui Ecosanctuary

I have followed the success of the Orokonui Ecosanctuary for quite some time on Facebook so with a sunny day finally dawning in Dunedin we decided to pay the reserve a visit, although by the time we got sorted it was well into the afternoon before we left. Orokonui is located 20kms north of the city overlooking Blueskin Bay, it’s a 307 hectare mainland “island” surrounded by 9kms of pest exclusion fence. The 1.9 metre tall stainless steel mesh fence is designed to keep out all introduced mammals, at ground level a steel skirt stops burrowing animals and a curved hood on the top stops climbing animals like cats & possums from entering the reserve.

And what a magic place it turned out to be, a definite highlight of the journey so far and one we will definitely be returning to when we come back to Dunedin (I know, I know…..another thing to add to the ever growing list of re-runs; this trip may just last 3 years!)

We parked beside this friendly fellow who was obediently waiting on the tray of a ute. while his Dad was doing some landscape work near the carpark.

The visitors centre was stunning; facing north east to catch the all day sun, it fitted into the environment so well. There was a large café overlooking two small ponds & the bush further on along with many nature displays & exhibits on show inside. We entered the reserve through a two gate locking system (so a rodent couldn’t make a dash in with us) and with a well marked map were able to explore in our own time. The sanctuary also does guided tours both day & night.

We made our way to the top clearing first as that was where we’d seen two takahe striding through while we were putting our boots on at the car. Takahe are flightless birds that belong to the rail family. They are similar to our pukeko (NZ swamphen) but much larger and were once thought to be extinct. The last 4 birds were taken from their home in the Murchison Mountains near Te Anau in 1898. It wasn’t until 50 years later in 1948 that they were “re-discovered”. There are now 270 birds at various sanctuaries around NZ but they are still on the critically endangered list. The two Orokonui takahe came from the successful breeding population on Mana Island in Wellington Harbour.

Not far from the takahe was a small open enclosure with stacks of rocks, native grasses & mingimingi growing. This brightly painted Maori figure took centre stage.

And sunning themselves on the rocks in the mid afternoon sun were the largest lizards I have ever seen in New Zealand.

These are Otago Skinks, they can grow up to 300mm in length and are in fact the largest lizard in NZ. They are only found in the Otago region and are one of NZ’s rarest reptiles. I’ve never seen them before or even heard about them so this was a fascinating sight. They have beautiful & quite striking markings which is obviously why Southern Maori call them mokomoko (moko is a permanent body and face marking)

We walked a number of tracks through the thick regenerating bush in the reserve catching sight of the usual bush dwellers; tui, bellbirds, kereru, tomtits, warblers, robins and a noisy flock of kaka. Far down in the valley are the saddlebacks & the tallest tree in NZ; we didn’t have time to walk that route. Along with the kaka noise the bird song in the bush was amazing, how wonderful it would be to have all that noise throughout New Zealand’s bush & forests. On some of the bush walks we’ve done we’d be lucky to hear half a dozen bird calls. It’s quite sobering to realise how far introduced predators have decimated our native bird population.

This male bellbird (koromiko) was singing his beautiful tune from the top of a tall bush, no doubt trying to impress the ladies.

The track came out into a clearing towards the end and it was here that we heard a slightly familar but not often heard bird call. It sounded like a large cricket, clicking away in the tall grass. But no matter how long we stood there we could not locate the source and when we moved it stopped altogether. We decided to see if we could locate this tiny secretive bird up near the takahe, where we began our walk, on the aptly named Fernbird Track. For in fact the clicking noise we heard belongs to the fernbird (matata).

We followed the predator proof fence around past the visitor centre and up the rise to the top of the reserve again…..

….back past the takahe who were now out grazing on the grass in the warmth of a fast setting sun.

And then as we approached the skink enclosure we heard that familiar clicking again. It took David a few moments to locate which bush it was coming from and as he did out popped our very first sighting of a fernbird (matata). I managed to grab a couple of quick shots before it jumped down behind the rocks and quickly made it’s way towards & over the fence and disappeared just as quickly into the bush on the other side, fernbirds are poor flyers but very fast movers.

And they aren’t called fernbirds because they live in ferns, although they probably do, their main habitat is dense lowland or wetland scrub. They’re called fernbirds because their tails look like fern fronds, they’re quite soft & feathery and spike like the feathers we used to add to a headband to make us look like Indians when we played Cowboys & Indians as kids. My next mission is to photograph a bird & it’s tail feathers!

We hunted about & stayed watching for another 15 minutes or so but sadly we failed to sight a bird & we heard no more clicking either. Never mind we finished our visit on a high and I ticked another bird on my list.

The sanctuary closed at 4:30pm and we were the last ones out the gate. The tussock & toitoi had turned a golden bronze in the setting sun.

And as the cloud rolled in from the sea over the top of Mopanui & the birds continued their evening song we both agreed we will be back in the summer and explore all day. I might just manage to get that shot of that tail too.