High on a Hill- Larnach Castle

Real-time

After visiting Tunnel Beach we made our way back over the hill and down past St Clair Beach...

...stopping for a brief stroll along the promenade to the salt water pool and back again.

Then it was onto Highcliff Road, a white-knuckle road that runs along the top of the Otago Peninsula. Actually it's only white-knuckle if you let the views drag your eyes from the road and/or you meet nervous drivers coming the other way. 

The views up and down the harbour are spectacular. That's Dunedin city to the left, you can see the white roof over the Forsyth Barr Stadium, Mt Cargill is top centre, a small tip behind the tree covered hills at the front. Taiaroa Head is to the right, way back behind the small peninsula that sticks out into the harbour . Port Chalmers is across the water from that peninsula, just behind the small island (click photo to enlarge).

It was getting late in the day but I wanted to visit Larnach Castle while we were in the area, we may not be back this way again. It was $33 to visit the garden and take a tour through the castle or $18 to take a self-guided walk around the gardens. The castle part of the tour was due to close shortly after we arrived (4:30pm) while the gardens were open until 7pm.

This worked out well because I didn't really need a look inside, I was happy to just view the gardens. But what I really wanted was a shot of Larnach Castle without any people. Fat chance. People and tour buses! Why they needed to park their buses right at the front door I have no idea.

Foiled at the first attempt I thought I'd start my wander through the gardens. The Laburnum Pergola would look spectacular flowering in the spring and even better when it matures in a few years time.

I've seen the Laburnum Arch flowering at Bodnant Gardens in North Wales, it's a magnificent sight. Click on this link to see the Larnach Pergola flowering, it still looks beautiful.

Bodnant Gardens, North Wales

Beautiful 'goblet like' colchicum, aka autumn crocus are flowering under the laburnum and in the naturalized 'Field' next door. They bring back memories of our secret find at Cambrian near St Bathans in Central Otago.

The pergola leads to the 'Green Room' and 'Reflection Pool' which is also looking a little 'green'.

I head back to see if the people have moved on. No chance. At least the bus has gone.

I carry on towards the back of the Castle passing the Petanque court & creamery and finding myself on the 'Wishing Well Lawn' and 'Alice in Wonderland Garden'.

Next is a walk through the 'Perennial Border' garden where I manage to capture (as in photograph not catch) one of New Zealand's endemic butterflies, the Red Admiral.

On past the 'Cupola'- from the sailing ship 'Zealandia'- it was installed at the Castle in 1927...

...and back to the Castle where it looks like no one is in a hurry to move.

I check out the Ballroom Cafe where there are just a few people finishing their afternoon tea...

...and with nobody sitting outside, I have my fingers crossed that the buses have carted them away. 

Things are looking good as I make my way across the lawn in front of the 'Tapestry Garden' and cafe...

...and back to the Raised Lawn in front of the Castle. Darn! There are no people just the Castle's mini van!

So I do another lap, heading down to the 'South Seas Garden' and the magnificent views from the Belvedere (an architectural structure sited to take advantage of a fine or scenic view). Three tourists have hogged the view and can not stop raving about the scenery to each other (and anyone else within earshot). 

Here's a classic New Zealand scene; blue skies and blue seas framed by our native Christmas Tree, the Pohutukawa and in the centre another native, a young rimu tree.

The visitors are still extolling the virtues of the views from the Belvedere...

...as I carry on around to the back of the Castle once again, past Larnach Lodge and the old stables (both available for accommodation) and stop to check out the remains of the privy building where, along with horse manure collected from the nearby stables, methane gas was piped to the 'big house' and mixed with acetylene gas to power the Castle's chandeliers.

I head back to the front lawn, only to find one lone guy standing there staring in contemplation at the Castle.

I wait patiently and then finally everyone is gone and I can capture Larnach Castle in all its splendid glory....except when I look closely now at the photo, I can see the lone guy disappearing through the door!

In 1870 William Larnach chose this site to build his magnificent mansion. He was an Australian banker who came to Dunedin lured by the gold rush wealth. William lived in the Castle with three successive wives until 1898 when he took his own life in New Zealand's House of Parliament. Larnach's children (five from his first marriage) sold the property which then changed hands several times and was twice abandoned.

The current owners took over the derelict Castle and 14 hectares of wilderness in 1967 and have worked tirelessly since restoring the castle, and rediscovering and developing the gardens & grounds.

David leaving for work...

Quick Departure From Weedons

Real-time

We made a quick exit out of the NZMCA Park at Weedons, Christchurch late Monday afternoon due to an inconsiderate neighbour who decided to light a large pile of green hedge trimmings while there was a reasonably strong wind blowing in the park's direction. 

The smoke, at first, was blowing down the other side of the camp but then the wind turned and sent it across to our side, the acrid smelling smoke forcing it's way inside the van through the vents and making it impossible to do anything outside. I don't usually react to irritants but this had my eyes smarting, nose running and it left a bitter taste in my mouth.

David was away doing last minute errands as we were due to leave Christchurch Tuesday morning anyway, but as soon as he arrived back we made the decision to hitch up and get out of there as fast as possible, I'm sure the green pile would have smoldered on for the next few days. It was approaching 4pm and we had to dump first and then make our way through the busy city heading north.  

We didn't want to be on the road after dark which is just after 5pm at the moment, so we headed to the Amberley Beach Campground in North Canterbury which is about an hour's drive away. It's run by the Hurunui District Council and is an informal campground with minimal facilities. This suits many campers as it's cheap and cheerful, and a safe place place to stay. The cost is $5 per person, per night on a non-powered site and $15 per van for a powered site.  

We haven't had power for a number of weeks so we decided to give the batteries a boost and park at the end of the camp where there are a few powered poles. We slotted ourselves into a suitable spot, making sure there was a connection available first, and that our lead reached the pole.

It looks like it's hedge trimming time right around the district; there are piles of green cuttings, tractors and trimmers parked around the edge of the camp. Let's hope they don't light any fires here!

There are three parts to the camp; the powered area at the far end, the non-powered sites (bottom left) by the entrance gate and across the road an area for campers with dogs(top right) which is great for those with pets as there are not too many camps that cater for them. 

It's just a short walk across the road and through a pine plantation reserve to Amberley Beach. The beach reminds me of Marine Parade in Napier and Rarangi in Blenheim, and in fact many others along the east coast of New Zealand. Stony, wild and windswept and not very inviting on a cold overcast day. This 'bach' on the corner with a commanding view of the ocean has seen better days. I'm sure it was someone's pride and joy in the past but I'm not so sure I'd be giving the designer a job any day soon. 

We left  Amberley Beach the next morning heading for Hanmer Springs. We had unfinished business in Hanmer and decided a short detour from our intended route was in order. You'll remember we came to Hanmer two years ago to a celebrate a significant birthday for David; hot thermal pool soak, massage treatment and a nice meal out. Unfortunately we forgot to check school holiday dates and the place was overrun with families, kids, bikes and cars. We took one look inside the hot pool complex and backed out of there quick, we did manage to have a meal out though and David had his massage treatment.

With school holidays still 2 weeks away we're back to have that soak and David is keen to have a massage again as he's been having major problems with his back. We'll only be here for a couple of nights so instead of parking at the NZMCA Park which is 8kms out of town, we decided to stop at a CAP (costs apply parking) which is just a short walk from the village. This way we can stay hitched as we don't need the ute. 

Hot Springs Motor Lodge has a large grassed area beside their motel complex on the main road into Hanmer Springs. It's been raining in Hanmer a fair bit lately and the ground is soft and muddy in places. We were offered the option of parking in the large hotel restaurant carpark but decided it was firm enough around the edge of the grass to park up, although the only issue might be the traffic noise early in the morning as the delivery trucks from Christchurch start arriving.

Payment is in the form of purchasing a $30 voucher for the Lodge's restaurant, which was fine by us as we were going to go out for a meal anyway. Of course I would prefer to choose my own restaurant, but as we'd already tried a couple in town on our last visit and '5 Stags' looked fine (and was), it worked out well. 

We walked into the village yesterday afternoon and as you can see it was deserted. Well not quite, any visitor's vehicles were gathered around the Hot Pools. 

There were nowhere near the number of people we saw on our last visit, when the pool queue reached out the door. Nor the amount of people in the various pools...

...which didn't matter anyway, as we booked ourselves a private thermal pool! 

Which didn't quite have the same view as we had from our deck overlooking Tauranga harbour, but was lovely to relax in all the same.

And in case you are wondering, yes, I still have a few posts from the West Coast to do....I'm working on them but life keeps getting in the way!

A Frog Pond & A Rock- Kumara

A last post from our time in Hokitika.

We took the long way home after one of our Blue Duck visits, carrying on up the road from the canal track and coming out on the main Arthurs Pass highway (SH73) then heading back to the coast through Kumara. There’s not much on the road other than native bush and scenic reserves before Kumara so when I spotted an old weather beaten sign I was intrigued to find out what was up the track.

This is Kumara’s ‘Frog Pond’ (as it was known to the locals), once the largest swimming pool complex in New Zealand, it measured 46 x 30 metres (50 x 33 yards) and had a 2 metre (6’6) deep end. It was built in 1933-34 by voluntary labour & unemployed relief workers during the Depression using the tailings(waste rock) from nearby gold workings for the walls. The pool had a clay bottom, two shallow bays for children and a 12 cubicle dressing shed. Water came from a reservoir south of Kumara through the same iron pipes that had supplied water to the gold sluicing claims. Looking at this isolated, quiet, overgrown patch of land, it's hard to visualize all the fun and action that would have gone on here, back then.

The pool was a popular meeting place for locals until it’s closure in the 1940s when it lost it’s water supply.

Just before the pools another track turned off the road near a hydro canal and pump station. After a short bumpy ride this even more weather beaten sign appeared. I had read about the Londonderry Rock but wasn’t sure what to expect. Going by the sign I’m not so sure they’re selling the experience too well.

From the carpark I can see a huge mountain of rocks through the overgrown bush; tailings from gold workings- they obviously didn’t use them all on the pool then.

A short rather lovely moss & bush clad track leads you through the rock tailings which are piled high on either side in numerous places.

Towards the end a large rock could be seen, it actually didn't look THAT big (the sun & shade in the same shot are playing havoc with my exposure)

But in fact it is quite large once we get up underneath it. This is the Londonderry Rock, a rock too large for the gold miners to break up or move. It is thought to weigh between 3-4000 tonnes.

Hopefully you can read the information panel and local folklore about the rock (click photo to see full size).

We didn’t stop in Kumara itself which was a shame as there are a number of old buildings and a lot of history in the little settlement, perhaps we’ll do that another day. Sometimes when we’ve been out all day we just get in the mode of getting home as quickly as we can- although I did manage to grab a shot of the newly painted Kumara Racecourse grandstand & buildings with some snow capped mountains in the background.

These photos are of a section of the old Arahura road & rail bridge which I took on our way to the ducks. This span has it’s own special reserve beside the new bridge which opened in 2009. The original one lane Howe Truss Span timber bridge was built in 1886-88. It’s a pity they didn’t think to keep a section of the old Hokitika River road & rail bridge before they blew it up! And I see that just the other day a new bridge has been OKed to replace the last remaining road & rail bridge on the Coast over the Taramakau River.

And that’s a good dose of snow on the Southern Alps that we woke up to one morning explaining why we were a little cold with all our blanket on. It didn’t last long though….the rain washed it away!

Mirror Tarn Reflections- Oparara Basin

These stunningly beautiful reflections come from an amazing little pond deep in the Oparara Basin rainforest; the Mirror Tarn.

A forest pool of dark, tannin stained water surrounded and sheltered by tall trees, creates a surface reflection so perfect it’s difficult to see where the land ends and the water begins. It’s also hard to decide which way is up with the photos.

We can thank the foresight of a local bushman who saved the surrounding tall rimu trees from being felled, he saw the beauty in the pond and fought to save the tarn from being destroyed.

Can you see the face quietly watching?

The sun poked it’s head out for brief moment and lit up the bush in this corner.

With just the birdsong for company, this is a place for reflection and of reflections.

The Mirror Tarn was the absolute highlight of my visit to the Oparara Basin, it’s hard to imagine that such amazing beauty can be contained in one tiny pool of water.