Perfect Poolburn- Part 1; Setting the Scene

 Catch-up (February 2021)

After the Lions 4WD safari in Roxburgh we headed on into the interior to do our own 4WD journey. To one of our favourite places in New Zealand; the Poolburn Reservoir.

Poolburn Dam & Rough Ridge

I've lost count, but this must be our 6th or 7th visit to this special place located high up on a plateau at the south end of Rough Ridge Range and the Ida Valley in Central Otago.

'Out There' heading up to Poolburn Dam

From the valley floor, after you turn off at the old Moa Creek Hotel & Store, it's a 12km gentle climb over a gravel, dirt & solid rock track to the dam.  

Moa Creek Hotel & Store

The track is part of the historic Old Dunstan Trail (the route gold miners took from Dunedin to join the Central Otago gold rush) and it's not a road for the faint-hearted, those that are low slung or worry about mud or dust but it's actually not too bad if you take your time. The climb up to the dam takes us just over an hour, the Ranger in 4WD Low Range most of the way. It's a little quicker coming back out. 

Mustering sheep off Rough Ridge

Much of surrounding land is farmed by Bospiel Station or Ida Valley Station and as we head up through the lower slopes of the plateau, hundreds of sheep are being mustered down to the valley. There's no hurry as the long trails of sheep weave in and out of matagouri & rocky tors and stretch back hundreds of metres.

We stop to take in the view behind us, looking back over the Ida Valley to the right, Alexandra somewhere out there to the left & Raggedy Range & the Dunstan Range in the centre. Raggedy Range, the first one you can see, separates the Ida Valley from Omakau, Ophir & the Manuherikia Valley. Click on the photo to enlarge.

The view looking west

The road looks fine in my photos but there are sections, and especially on corners, that have been gouged out and washed away by recent heavy rain. The solid rock sections stay put but the soil gets washed away in between. If you'd like to check out how the road can get during winter, here's one of my earlier blogs on Poolburn.

Eat my dust

Regular visitors to the dam know that when you see the 'rabbit' you're nearly there, Poolburn is just over the next rise. It took me a few trips before I finally spotted it, there are so many rocky tors dotted over the landscape you can actually see a whole zoo of animals if you try too hard.

Poolburn rabbit

And then there it is, Poolburn looking as spectacular as ever.

Arriving at Poolburn Dam

We breathed a sign of relief when we saw that our regular camping spot was free. While there are never more than half a dozen or so campers dotted around the dam, we have our favourite location. 

The view from the front door

Once the 5th-wheeler is set-up it doesn't take long to get inflatable Takacat up & ready for fishing.

'Out There' & 'In There' (the dinghy)

We were planning on staying for two weeks and if the first couple of days were anything to go by, we were going to have some spectacular summer weather. Typical Central Otago with big blue skies, wide open spaces, rich golden tussock, crystal clear water and fiery sunrises & sunsets.

The Golden Hour at Poolburn

Unfortunately I spoke too soon, three days later a summer storm rolled in over the far end of the dam. Angry clouds and a strong wind forewarned of more to come.

Clouds close in

Those that know Poolburn know how quickly the weather can change up on top of the plateau. And how bitterly cold it can get within minutes. By late afternoon heavy rain lashed the rig...

Tucked up inside

...and by nightfall the cloud had descended and wrapped us in a dark cold gloom.

Hopefully the dinghy will be there in the morning

Thankfully- as we rocked & rolled through the night in our 'tin can'- it blew itself out and the next day dawned a little more settled.

Poolburn Dam

And that was that, no more bad weather. We had glorious sunshine (& occasionally fluffy white clouds) for the remainder of our stay. 

A typical Central Otago landscape- big skies, rocky tors & tussock

While David went fishing I headed off on several exploring expeditions, the first one to check out the quarry that John (one of my regular followers & a Poolburn devotee) had told me about.

Poolburn Dam 

And sure enough after a short climb just above the dam wall I found a large hole in the ground...

Poolburn Quarry

...& what is most probably the only patch of green for miles around. The quarry once supplied rock for the dam wall, now with its enclosed micro climate, a mini swamp complete with damsel flies and reeds of raupo are surviving in its water filled base.

The Dunstan Trail heads off into the distance

On another day I drove out past the dam wall and continued on along the Old Dunstan Trail taking photos and...

The Dunstan Trail & Poolburn Dam

...turning around when I reached the Serpentine Church fork in the road. There are no sign posts, I only know this because we have done Long Valley Ridge Road to the church previously. The Dunstan Trail continues on to the left and comes out at Styx at the top of the Maniototo Valley. We have driven this route previously too but it's one I didn't write a blog on. Which annoys me because I know we saw three falcons along the way & also walked into the Styx Jail. One day I will fill in the blog gaps!

Serpentine Church junction

On my way back I stopped on the side of the road and walked a short distance through the tussock and around the rocky outcrops until I found a high spot with magnificent views across the tussock covered landscape to the reservoir beyond.

Poolburn Dam

Zooming in on the Poolburn you can see the many fingers of the dam reaching out into the surrounding depression...

Poolburn Dam

You can also see why boating on Poolburn is a little bit of a nightmare, especially in an inflatable. There are just as many and probably more rocky protrusions below the waterline than above. And the sharp pointy tops that were several feet below the last time you visited can be just several inches below the surface on the next visit. 

Poolburn Dam

Visitors. Oh we had a fair few to the dam this time and with them came a mega amount of dust. Some days it was like Piccadilly Station with the amount of vehicles passing. Although this lovely pied stilt who walked up and down the water line every morning, right in front of our rig searching for breakfast, didn't seem too perturbed with all the activity. 

Pied Stilt

One disturbing visitor came knocking at our door in the middle of the night. We still have no idea what it was but I suspect a possum or a wild cat (which we saw wandering in amongst the rocks later in the week). Then again I thought it might have been a dog from one of the cribs on the far side of the dam.

Cribs & Clouds- Poolburn Dam

That was until I saw it had peed on our bottom step. Back to a possum I think. It left paw marks in the dust in two places on the door (see top red arrows) & a stray hair stuck to the wall. It unsettled us a little as it was quite loud, and you know how it is in the middle of dark night when you're all by yourself. David took the spotlight out to check but saw nothing. We double checked the security door lock & went back to bed. 

I left an piece of apple out the next few nights expecting it to be gone if it was a possum but nothing touched it. 

Calling card

Other visitors included over 60 motorbike riders competing in the TT2000 long distance motorcycle rally. The TT2000 is an annual challenge where riders cover 2000km in 48 hours, Each year there's a theme & set check points and the aim is for riders to cover the distance & visit the minimum numbers of check points required by any route they choose within the 48 hours. 

TT2000 riders s top to take in the view over the dam

The 2021 rally began & finished in Oamaru and the checkpoint theme was Scottish place names. Not all the riders take the same route but we certainly had our fair share of them passing through in small groups throughout the day. 

It was a little worrying later in the day to see a police vehicle & a first responder racing past the dam, they'd have a fair way to travel to reach the incident as the last of the motorcyclists had passed by quite some time prior. Rescue vehicles is something you wouldn't see very often up on the plateau. They came back past after dark.

First responder

During our time at the dam, there were groups of 4WD vehicles passing through in both directions most days, friends travelling together or 4WD tour groups travelling the Dunstan Trail. There was also an foot orienteering event starting & finishing at one of the cribs across the dam. It was a scorcher of a day for the steady stream of tiny little figures walking, running and clambering over the surrounding countryside.

Cribs at Poolburn Dam

Next came 50 cyclists on the Tour Te Waipounamu, a bikepacking race that runs the length of the South Island (1330kms); over mountains, through the high country & across the plains. The race starts at Cape Farewell and finishes a week or so later at Slope Point. Fellow NZMCA members Mandy & her husband were following several of the riders including the leader (and eventual winner) of the race, Ollie Whalley. They parked up above us on the roadside (see photo below) to cheer the riders through. Ollie came through in the early evening & when we awoke in the morning Mandy & her hubby had gone, chasing the riders south.

 

The sun sets on the couple's Ford Explorer

I spent the rest of our time at Poolburn checking the live rider location readings on the race's website and cheering them on has they passed by us. Ollie completed the race in 5 days, 10 hours, riding for 38 hours without sleeping and covering 474km on his last leg. Check out the photos & terrain the riders covered in this event recap.

More visitors to Poolburn

And last but not least, and certainly with more intrigue, were the cast & crew filming the Lord of the Rings TV series. It was all cloak & dagger stuff & anyone I met while out exploring or we asked as we passed them on the road, would neither confirm nor deny it. But it was fairly obvious given that Poolburn was the land of Rohan in the original LOTR movies & February was the month the TV series was to be filmed in NZ. 

The Tech site (centre photo) and entrance to it (top left) was just down the road from our camp so we saw a continuous stream of vehicles, trucks, trailers (with UTVs & portaloos stacked on them) & other interesting vehicles heading into the tech site each day. During one morning over 40 vehicles arrived (along with all their dust). Anyone travelling in the opposite direction on the road would have wondered what on earth they had struck. It's very rare to pass one or two vehicles let alone that many. 

LOTR TV Series

The actual film set was 10 or so kilometers further on past the dam on the Dunstan Trail, way off up on a ridge (top right). I spotted it the day I travelled to the Serpentine Church turnoff. The Nomad Safari vehicles looked to be transferring guests (actors?) back and forward between sites. 

In stealth mode, I managed to snap off a few shots of the occupants! Not really, they just happened to pass as I was walking above them or along the road photographing other subjects. It's amazing what a good zoom lens can see! I swear that could be Gandalf in the bottom left photos.

We passed a couple in a rental car near the bottom of the road as we left Poolburn. We pulled off the track to let them past and they pulled up beside the ute to thank us & to ask how far if was to Poolburn. When we found out they were looking for the film set, I explained it was 10kms further on from the dam. I'm positive they or at least one of them would have been an actor, I just didn't have the gumption to ask. I didn't want to look like some star struck fan! I'm kicking myself now. They also must have wondered where on earth they were driving too in their city slicker clothes & flash rental car. 

LOTR TV series film set

It goes without saying that I took oodles of photos; the cloud formations, sunrises & sunsets, cribs & night sky all making fabulous subjects. The Southern Lights even made an appearance for two nights running. 

Poolburn Dam

They're to come in the next few blogs from Poolburn Dam. Those blogs should be (hopefully) short on words and long on photos!   

Big skies, small rig- Poolburn Dam

And an added note; hopefully those that subscribe to my blog have had no issues with the new supplier as mentioned in the previous blog. And I note that some subscribers may not have been receiving any blogs due to the initial notification going into the junk folder. Hopefully this won't happen with the new company. If you'd like to now subscribe to my blog please fill in the details in the box out in the right hand column (back at the beginning of the blog).

Perfect Poolburn Continued in Part 2

Seeking out the Serpentine- Part 2

Continued on from Part 1

After arriving at the historic and isolated Serpentine Union Church on a beautiful sunny afternoon I spent the first ten minutes or so rushing around taking photos. Just in case. Just in case the thick bank of cloud approaching from the horizon behind reached us before we'd finished having lunch. I didn't want to come all this way for the weather to suddenly ruin my blue sky day. 

The first thing I noticed as I approached the porch was a great swarm of blow-flies buzzing about. I then noticed a couple of large rabbit holes in the mound of dirt that held the porch poles. And from out of them came more flies. Eeuw yuk. There was obviously something dead inside one of the holes and most likely a rabbit of two. Not pleasant at all and just as well I couldn't see the bodies. 

I have a feeling that they were either poisoned (there were poison signs on nearby gates) or the calicivirus has taken hold again. I also suspect the the sick hawk we saw back at the beginning of the trail may have dined on a poisoned rabbit. It must also be the reason that we saw not one rabbit on the road in, very unusual for this area of Central Otago.

Back to the church- the iron roof is held down by wires weighted with large rocks tied to the ends, it was obviously once thatched as remnants of thatch are still visible from the inside. The chimney has long gone from the back corner and iron patches the hole left behind.

I was a bit worried opening the door as to what I was going to find inside- dead rats (or worse still, live ones), dirt floor full of burrows, someone hiding behind the door, well you never know what surprises await you with old buildings. But I was pleasantly surprised to see a wooden floor and various pieces of authentic furniture- whether they are original or not I have no idea. I've included a number of the photos from the inside in this post; I thought I'd do my bit for social history and upload them as there is very little on the web about the church, other than the standard 'little church, big sky, heaps of tussock' photo.

A centre strut and cross beam have been added to support the roof. There's a raised platform (chancel) at the front of the church from where the minister would have conducted his sermons.

I suspect the coal range was added when the church became a miner's cottage. The wetback (if there was one) and chimney have been removed and the gap re-stoned. The iron sheets on the outside protect this corner.

There are a few old bottles on the window sill (and a couple of Speights cans), and a wooden cupboard on a box in the corner.

David opened its door for me (well, there might have been a body inside). Of course there was nothing so exciting, just an interesting collection of old tools, tins and other relics and a few large spiders. 

An old wooden bench seat didn't look too inviting and was a bit wonky on its legs.

David filled in the visitors book which sat on the dusty table, the last entry was 3 days prior. He also decided to give the floor a sweep with the broom that was propped up beside the door; the floor was covered in thick dust and dirt. I had to stop him quickly as a swirl of choking dust rose and nearly obliterated my view as I took photos.  

Two old shoes...

A couple of old wire wove beds fill a couple of the corners.

A brief history of the church has been engraved into a gothic arch shaped piece of ply. I hate to admit it but we failed to spot the engraving- it was very dark inside the church, most of my inside photos were taken at a slow shutter speed to let in the light. Or perhaps there was just too much dust swirling about- but it wasn't until I uploaded the photos that I saw writing on the board. Click on the photo to enlarge.

Outside, and its another photo of the Serpentine Church- a tiny stone building in a vast and isolated landscape. Pretty amazing really.

The only signs of life on the plateau as we drove through were a large a number of hawks soaring far above us, a few sheep off in the far distance, the odd pipit with a death wish; running and jumping ahead of us...

And dozens of beautifully patterned skinks sunbathing on the warm stones in the church wall. I knew they were native NZ skinks but was unsure of the species, so posted an observation on the NatureWatch NZ site for identification. Here's the response I received-

Good find! There are two different species in these photos. The first and third pictures are of a McCanns skink, Oligosoma maccanni, and the second picture is of a southern grass skink, Oligosoma polychroma 'clade 5'.

We're keen to find an Otago Skink, which are very rare and only found in Central Otago. They are very large lizards by NZ standards and can grow to around 300mm in length. We've only ever seen them at Orokonui Eco Sanctuary on the outskirts of Dunedin.

And here's one final photo of the Ranger in front of the church.

We spent about an hour soaking in the scenery, the warm sun, checking out the church, taking photos and having a late lunch on our favourite seat; the ute's backdoor. Reluctantly we decided we'd better get going before it got too late in the afternoon.

Beyond a closed gate near the church and heading east we could see a rough 4WD track, it climbed up through the tussock before disappearing over a hill off into the distance. We knew that this track would be rough for about a kilometre before it met the old Serpentine Road, but if we could manage it, it would mean we wouldn't have to retrace our steps back over Long Ridge Valley Road. If we took this track we'd then be able to complete a big loop and either return via the Old Dunstan Road or head down into civilization through Styx, into the Maniototo and home via the main highway.

It started off well enough, just a couple of small boggy patches to cross and a relatively straight run along the tops of the ruts. It may not look like it from these photos but the narrow ruts in the track from the church (in the background) to here were quite deep. I had to walk (run) ahead directing David so he wouldn't drop a tyre off into a rut and belly out. Our walkie-talkies were invaluable!

A little further on and the going got a lot tougher- a bigger bog patch that we were unwilling to cross. You never know how deep they're going to be or what's in the bottom of them- this one had a metal spike sticking out and a few mudguard remnants on the side. Bog trophys from past excursions by others through the interior. We also don't have very knobbly tyres and they were already full of mud and very slippery.

David eased the ute up the side, towards the tracks that earlier vehicles had used to avoid the bog. In the end the angle just got too acute for us to feel comfortable- our motto is 'sticky side down, shiny side up' and we wanted to stay that way! First the towbar, then the rear bumper were dragging on the rut ridges behind. David got out to check...

And then decided to see what was in store ahead if we did get through this part- that's him, a tiny dot on the horizon. he came back to say it was marginal, there was another rough patch up the side of hill but also another track that others had formed beside it, still rough but not as bad. 

In the end we decided 'discretion was the better part of valour' and we'd have to return via the way we came. Being by ourselves, late in the afternoon, with no phone reception, driving a 'shiny' and a vehicle which we rely on for our lifestyle, made the decision in the end. It was borderline comfort zone for both of us, but I can see how people can and do push the limits. We kept saying "but just over the hill and we'll be back on a relatively easy track", the lure of a new road was hard to ignore. I've since heard that the Serpentine Road is just as bad; it's not used nearly as much as the Long Ridge Valley Road and when it is, it's by true 4WDrivers- we'll have to check that out from the other end.

And here's what the track can look like, no wonder the ruts are so deep! -

After a twenty point turn and a popped mudguard (very hard to turn on a narrow deeply ridged track) David carefully drove back towards the church. We heaved a big sigh of relief when we got back to the gate. We knew the road ahead.

Without the stops to explore and take photos, we made it back to the Serpentine Reserve gate in half the time.

And then it off across the plateau travelling on a road that seemed alot bumpier than before. Perhaps it was because we are travelling at a slightly faster pace, keen to get the miles behind us before the sun dropped into view ahead of us.

We did stop a few times; once to check out an airstrip (shown on one of our apps) which was down a side track- it was a relatively bare and bumpy strip of earth covered in short tussock stumps and pitted with rabbit holes. I doubt much would land here, perhaps it's a top-dressing refill point or somewhere they carted in fence supplies for the new fences and gates that criss-cross the area.

I still carried my camera out for every gate opening; you never know what might take your eye. Like these Spaniard spikes beside a rock and poking out of the tussock. 

Finally, 1 hour and 40 minutes after leaving the church we're closing the gate on the Old Dunstan Road- this same same distance this morning, took 3 hours. We're within sight of Poolburn Dam...

...which looks absolutely stunning in the late afternoon light (6pm)...

We found the guys from the dinghy this morning sitting out in the sun enjoying the peace and quiet and their very own 'happy hour'.

Half an hour later and we're heading down into the Ida Valley which is looking mighty green compared with our visit last winter. The Rough Ridge dams are doing their work.

Then up and over Raggety Range (still love that name), stopping one last time to take a photo overlooking the Manuherikia  River valley and Omakau outskirts. It looks amazing in the light of the setting sun (7pm). If I hadn't felt so worn out after our 9 hour tiki-tour, I would have returned to the lookout with my tripod and captured some panoramic shots. That'll have to wait until next time. I have a feeling Poolburn hasn't seen the last of us.

And that was the road, there and back, to the Serpentine. Another amazing day, enjoyed well off the beaten track. It was time to follow suit and enjoy a long cool drink.