Exploring South Otago- Part 2

Real-time

Continued on from Part 1

The weather didn't improve for our next day's exploring either, but at least it didn't rain. The Sinclair Wetlands have been on our 'must visit' list for awhile, but it seemed each time we were in the area we were heading somewhere else fast. It wasn't the best season to visit the wetlands but if we didn't check them out now we may not be back this way for a long while.

The Sinclair Wetlands form a 315 hectare portion of the much larger, nationally important and regionally significant, Lakes Waihola and Waipori wetland complex which are fed by several waterways.

In the early farming days most of the Taieri Plains wetlands were drained and converted to farmland with just the two lakes and their swamps left. Part of the Sinclair Wetlands was also farmed but from 1960 under the ownership of the late Horrie Sinclair farming ceased, along with the pumping out of water. 

In 1984 Mr Sinclair gifted the wetland to Ducks Unlimited NZ, a wetland conservation group. In 1986 a Queen Elizabeth II National Trust covenant was registered and in 1998 the property was returned to Ngai Tahu as part of the Ngai Tahu Claim Settlement Act. 

The wetland is run under a trust and visitors, for a gold coin donation, are welcome to wander along several tracks.

The longest track leads to the only two islands in the wetland, Lonely & Ram Islands. From these there are 360° views over a massive expanse of wetlands reaching all the way over to the lakes behind. This photo is looking back to the visitors centre and entrance. Many conservation groups and the district's schools help with the clearing land and the planting of thousands of plants. 

The bird life was a little light on the ground probably due to the fact that it's autumn and they're all off preparing for winter or hiding under the reeds away from the cool weather. Although it was disappointing to be passed on the track by a small dog running here, there and everywhere, and then by it's owners casually strolling along behind. No dogs are allowed at the wetland and certainly no dogs not on leads! I did (politely) have my say, I doubt it made any difference. 

I would have been upset had I been tracking this Fernbird/Matata through the flax when the dog came past, it took several minutes to stalk before I managed to grab a photo, unfortunately not a clear one. The elusive and secretive Fernbird, referred to as the 'swamp sparrow' by our early settlers, is a delight to watch stealthily creeping away from danger through the undergrowth.

The wetland flora contained an amazing number of Nursery Web Spider webs. Nearly every flax clump, bush and reed had a small compact web with a large scary spider guarding its precious cargo. Most scurried away but this lady stayed put. Females have a leg span of six centimetres or more and are much larger than their male counterparts. 

The Wetlands has a small camping ground available which would be great if you're wanting to go birding at the best times; early morning or late evening. It has just 4 sites with optional power, and there are showers and toilets available.

It also has the best camping registration board we've seen on our travels. This would solve the problem many sites have when there are a limited number of sites available. There's no arguing who has dibs on a spot if you've paid your fee and signed in your name and then gone for an explore in your vehicle. A caretaker lives nearby and I guess he'd rub out your name if you forget to when you leave.

Our next destination is a good 20kms inland, 20kms of winding, gravel road climbing slowly up through native bush into the hinterland and on to Waipori Falls. It was another place I'd had marked down to visit along with Lake Mahinerangi which was a lot further on and up on a plateau. Someone had given me a tip that the lake was a good bird watching spot. I'll never know because by the time we got to Waipori Falls we'd had enough of gravel winding roads.

The road followed the Waipori River Gorge for most of the way (the river feeds the wetlands down on the plains)- half way up we spotted a dam wall down below the road.

And if I hadn't seen the water flowing down the spillway I would have sworn that there was no water behind the dam, it was so dark and still. It's not surprising then, that Waipori means 'dark water' in Maori.

This is a first for us, giving way at a water storage silo, it's usually a one lane bridge or a washout.

Eventually we arrived at the falls carpark and one of the four power stations on the river system; Waipori #2. We hadn't found anywhere on the trip up where we could pull over and have lunch beside the river so we thought we'd have it in the reserve before walking to the falls. 

After travelling all that way and not seeing a single person it was a shock to find a guy mowing the lawn across the road from the small reserve. More so because of the noise, our peace and quiet of being miles from anywhere was shattered by this guy whizzing around in front of us at full speed while we ate our lunch sitting on the ute tailgate. 

After lunch, and now with two mowers roaring around (one had come down the road from the hill above) we headed off up the short track to Waipori Falls (also known as Crystal Falls), a track that was very narrow, rocky and quite muddy. What a disappointment that turned out to be. 

The track ended at a small platform, we could hear falling water somewhere in front of us but couldn't see a thing through the undergrowth other than a small pool directly below us. I climbed under the rails and down to the pool and there, if you looked carefully, was a tiny section of the falls that obviously came from way up above. I tell you, if I was a tourist on a busy travel itinerary, I'd be pretty peeved off driving all this way to see this recommended attraction.  This would have to have been the most uninteresting walk we've ever done.

We headed back to the carpark only to find that the mowers had been replaced by two flamin' noisy weed-eaters! No listening to the birds today.

We drive off up the hill to check out a few roof tops I'd seen through the bush. It was a surprise to find quite a little settlement nestled amongst the trees including this old fire station building...

and the village hall...

The narrow moss covered road zig-zagged up the hill and around and back down again, past several houses, some of them occupied. This was once a busy settlement established in 1902 to house workers building the hydro electric scheme on the Waipori River (originally used to power Dunedin, 60kms away) . It's now a rather sleepy bolt-hole for a few people who obviously enjoy the isolation.

I said to David I think it had to be one of the most remote places to live that we've visited. I'm sure if you were wanting to hide from the law, it would be a very long time before they tracked you down to here. And yet if you look at the map below you'll see that it's just a hop,skip and jump from Dunedin airport.

We decided not to carry on to Lake Mahinerangi as it was another 15kms of winding road and then we'd have to retrace our steps all the way back home afterwards. 

Once we arrived back at Henley on SH1 (and not too far from our last stop at Taieri Mouth) we crossed over the highway and took a short back road to Waihola, finding this abandoned cheese factory...

...and this unusual front paddock ornament...

...and one more Taieri River Bridge. The Taieri River meets the Waipori River here and they both flow on together for a short distance before flowing through a gorge to Taieri Mouth.

So that was South Otago, down and dusted for us. It's not an area I'd rave about but I'm glad we decided to explore it a little.

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.

Macraes Giants- Otago; Part 1

Real-time

We went looking for giant lizards at Macraes Flat, instead we found a giant bird, a giant mine and a giant collection of pig skins!

We travelled through some new territory on the way to Macraes Flat, following the eastern end of the Otago Rail Trail which finishes (or starts, depending on which way you ride it) in Middlemarch. We stopped at the old Hyde Hotel where many bikers call in at the cafe for refreshments on their way through.

I also took the obligatory church photos (both now decommissioned) and one of the the old school, which is now a cyclists accommodation lodge.

A little further on we turn left and head up onto the rocky plateau ahead of us. We're on a bit of wild goose chase, one I don't hold out much hope in being successful in either. But we have all day ahead of us and nowhere we need to be in a hurry. And we have our home on the back, so we'll stop where and when the fancy takes us. 

We're looking for Grand Skinks and their slightly larger brothers the Otago Skink, they are New Zealand's largest lizard at 300mm (11 inches) long. They are very rare, very endangered and found only in three or four small areas in Otago, including in the Macraes Flat conservation area.

We've only ever seen them at Orokonui Ecosanctuary in Dunedin where they are successfully breeding- that's a young lizard riding on a parent's back with two juveniles on the rock below. The baby is about the size of the usual skinks people see in NZ.

I took these photos also at Orokonui- that's an adult top left and a baby bottom right and look how well camouflaged they are in the bush. You've probably guessed due to the lack of photos from elsewhere that we failed to find any skinks at Macraes Flat. Which actually isn't that surprising considering the fact that, in the end, we ran out of time and didn't even look! 

Here we are crossing the Taieri River for the upteenth time on our travels. This isn't surprising given that the river is 318km long and flows from the upper reaches of the Maniototo Valley, makes a dramatic U turn around the northern end of the Rock & Pillar Range and flows down through the Strath Taieri Valley (where we are) all the way to the ocean.

We've crossed back and forward over the Taieri River numerous times while exploring the Maniototo and Otago, we've been to the top in the Maniototo Valley and seen the Upper Taieri Scroll Plain where the river begins its journey (click to enlarge) and to the bottom, staying at Taieri Mouth not long after we started this journey and everywhere in between.

This beautiful old iron lattice truss bridge over the Taieri was built in 1879.

It was a long, slow and steady haul up onto the plateau where the views back over the valley to the Rock & Pillar Range behind were absolutely stunning. The Rock & Pillars rise to 1450m and are named for the impressive tors along the ridge. 

We pass many hundreds of tors on this side of the valley too, in fact we could still be in Central Otago as the landscape is so similar, and then travel on past farmland atop the Taieri Ridge. It took a few moments to register what we were seeing strung along the fenceline ahead of us as we passed here.  As far as the eye could see ahead... 

...and once we stopped, back behind us, at least a kilometre of animal skins! Collected over the past 20 years they are mostly wild pigs but deer, goat and wallaby skins are in there too, some complete with skulls. Eeuw!

There are many bizarre fences in New Zealand; Cadrona's famous bra fence, several shoe fences, a jandal (flip-flop) fence or two, bike fences, hubcap fences, number plate fences but now we've seen it all! No wussy collection here, this is a true Southern Man's fence! 

Further on, and as we drop down into the a huge basin of Macraes Flat, far across the valley we can see some terracing on the hills and steam rising from chimneys near what looks like a very large mine site (I've zoomed in here). I wonder if we'll get close...

Eventually we pull into the old gold mining settlement of Macraes (pop. 54). where there's neither sight nor sound of people about, even though it's a holiday Monday. In 2014 the settlement changed its name from Macraes Flat to Macraes so as to distinguish itself from the surrounding district.

We have lunch parked beside the old stables of the historic Stanley's Hotel (1882) which is across the road.

Stanley's Hotel was owned by Oceana Gold, the gold mining company that runs the nearby mine. In 2015 it was returned to the community in exchange for some impressive artwork....well one piece of impressive art, I'm not so sure about the others.

Located behind where we're parked is the Macrae Heritage & Arts Park and wetland, originally given to the community by the mine it has now been exchanged for the hotel, other heritage buildings, land and money. 

Eventually, I'm sure, the park will be given back to the community. I mean what's a gold mine going to do with a 9m high, 750kg big bird, a tussock planting and numerous large billboards (a very odd contribution if I must say so myself).

The bird on the other hand is a stunning sculpture and such a pity it's not seen by many people. You could drive straight through Macraes and not spot it, or even visit the settlement and not know of it tucked out the back.

With a 12m wingspan, it is of the long extinct Haast's Eagle, a bird that in reality weighed about 15kgs and had a wingspan of 3 metres. It was known to attack and eat moa, the sculpture is in attack mode here. As befitting a bird of this size the eagle was flown, beneath a helicopter, from sculptor Mark Hill's (son of jeweller Michael Hill) home in Arrowtown to Macraes in 2008. Now that would have been an impressive sight. 

This little dog's grave stone and plaque has been moved to near the entrance to the walkway around the wetland and sculpture park. What a sad little poem; David & I couldn't decide whether the driver ran back and forth over the dog until she died or just ran over her and killed her outright. Either way it was obviously a very traumatic time for her owner, and just before Christmas too.

I took a quick walk up the road to locate the local church, and as with many of NZ's abandoned or nearly abandoned country settlements, this is another church that has seen better days. This is the former St Patrick's Catholic Church, a Category 2 listed Historic Place building, now located in a horse paddock and in a sad state of disrepair.

To be continued... Part 2