Lake Huts & Longdrops

Following on from this post on Lake Onslow here are the photos of the huts & loos.....

We wandered along the front of the huts admiring the whacky collection of ramshackle holiday homes with their wonderful views of Lake Onslow. Everyone was a masterpiece in its own right, made up from the old, the new and the recycled with corrugated iron being the material of choice for many.

The stories they could tell. A lifetime of family & fishing holiday photos & mementoes hung on the inside walls of the huts we could see into, magazines from yesteryear & dog eared paperbacks cluttered the coffee tables. Seventies kitchen kitsch graced the benches and walls, a trio of china ducks flew across the lounge wall of one hut.

 

 

And very near each hut; some beside, some in front and some way back behind were the long drops with their million dollar views.

The Dismal Swamp- Lake Onslow

We had about a week to fill in once we left Pinders Pond & before we were due back in Invercargill for the Bluff Oyster Festival and to say goodbye to the family for winter. We’re heading to the top of the South Island to escape the bitter cold of a Southern winter. While looking for the next camping site I saw that there was a freedom camping site at Lake Onslow which was about 22kms inland from Roxburgh. It looked pretty isolated, & with good fishing available, David was keen to take the fifth-wheeler there for a few days to check it out.

I did some research & asked a few questions on one of my forums, David also asked the guy at the local garage when he was filling up (he said it’d be fine as long as the weather was too) but after a bit of a discussion we decided that we’d stay on at Pinders Pond & do Lake Onslow as a day trip. The road starts out as gravel turning into a clay dry weather track about 10kms from the lake. It hadn’t rained for a week or so and the weather forecast was for fine but even though we thought we’d probably get in ok, if the weather turned, we’d then get stuck in there for a week or more. The weather at this time of the year can be very unpredictable.

There were two recommended access roads to the lake, one at Roxburgh East & the other at Millers Flat. The guy from the garage recommended the Roxburgh route & we thought we’d come back via Millers Flat to check that road out too. We wanted to be sure of the road because if we like the lake we’d probably  take the van there in the summer. The road climbed steeply out of Roxburgh and at the top we found ourselves nearly opposite our turn around point from the other day, when we travelled up the Old Man Range across the valley.

Once up on top, the road levelled out as we travelled through rolling green farmland for quite some distance. And the gravel slowly disappeared too, to be replaced by hard clay with very few corrugations or pot holes. It was actually a good road all things considered & would not have been a problem towing or driving a motorhome.

At the intersection with the Millers Flat route & Lake Onslow Road the road narrowed, the “Dry Weather Track” sign appeared and it now became a dirt track. Still not a problem to drive though, nice & smooth with the added benefit of no dust.

We had been slowly climbing and the surrounding 360 degree views were spectacular, as far as the eye could see there were smooth plateaus, narrow ridges & shadowed valleys.  The rolling green farmland gave way to the rugged desolate tussock grasslands that is typical Central Otago.

I could have stopped at every turn in the road (David thinks we did), fabulous landscapes & photographic opportunities in every direction, the scenery just amazing.

We hadn’t passed anybody on the road so far (and weren’t to see anybody else after this encounter either) but while we were stopped near the top of a ridge I heard a vehicle approaching from ahead of us. It was a ute which slowed when the driver saw me on the side of the road, they wound down the window to say there was another vehicle coming behind them. David asked if they had been duck shooting, “Yes we have but the guys coming have been hunting”. And then around the corner came a dust, mud & blood splattered ute with this poor stag tied to the deck. They weren’t  hanging around either and roared off down the road, no doubt keen to get home to tell all & sundry what heroes they were. Ok, I’m being facetious but I’d like the odds better if the deer had guns.

Further on near the summit of the road we came across more “Lonely Graves”, but these were memorial stones, a father lost in the 1960s & a son with quite a recent date. Perhaps farmers from the area who loved the land & the view.

We carry on along the track which seems to go on forever, it also looks like it may have rained recently up here as it was cut up a bit with a few more ruts and muddy potholes in the dips. Still taking our time we would have been fine with “Out There” on the back.

Finally we arrived at the top of a ridge to see Lake Onslow far below us in a shallow valley. The area where the lake now is was once known as the “Dismal Swamp”, the lake was created in 1888 by the damming of the Teviot River for a gold claim far below the range at Roxburgh.

Lake Onslow was not like any lake I’ve ever seen before. From this vantage point it reminded me of a large puddle, & with not a tree in site.

Down at lake level we found the worse patch of mud on the whole road & just through the gate and around the corner a narrow section with a reasonably sharp bend that we would have had to take our time getting “Out There” in there. But we would have made it. And what a perfect spot. If you like isolation, wide open space, big skies & vast views then Lake Onslow would be the ideal place. Add to that the large population of self-sustaining big brown trout that make the lake their home & you have the makings of a grand holiday.

Dotted around a point jutting out into the lake were an amazing assortment of huts and long-drops (NZ slang for outhouse). More fodder for the photographer!

We stopped on a clearing between the huts over looking the lake. Lake Onslow is known as an isolated, barren & windswept lake but today there wasn’t a breath of wind, the silence was deafening and to top it all off, it was a stunning warm autumn day with a huge blue ski and a beautiful deep blue lake. I can now see why blue & gold are Otago’s colours. What a breathtaking view.

And then from far across the lake we hear and could see hundreds of excited Canada geese making their way across the water to the island in the centre. I wonder if there are hunters over there and they’ve been spooked. And then we see two microlights flying across the lake. At first we think they are herding the geese but they fly right on by disappearing over the tussock covered rise behind us. The geese settle on the shore and the noise dies down. Peace & quite once again.

We wandered along the front of the huts admiring the whacky collection of ramshackle holiday homes……..wait, I can’t do the huts (& loos) justice by posting a photo or two of them here and then moving on so I’ve decided to do a whole separate blog post of them! Don’t worry though, I've posted it at the same time, you can find it here.

In the meantime here is a tempter-

After our walk through the huts we pulled out the chairs and sat on the edge of the lake to have our lunch enjoying the warm sun on our backs and still air.

I know that we were seeing the lake on a perfect day but I think I’d love it just as much during a storm or if it was raining & windy, even snow for a few days would be ok. I’d tuck myself up in the fifth-wheeler with a few good books, my laptop, plenty of food & some good wine in the fridge and the diesel heaters pumping out cosy warmth. Oh and of course the generator handy with plenty of spare fuel. Splendid isolation! David might even like to join me.

After lunch we drove back through the gate and headed up the road to check out the dam. In 1924, after originally being dammed to supply water for gold mining, Lake Onslow started operating as a irrigation & power scheme. In 1982 a new dam was built downstream and this increased the area of the lake from 367ha to around 830ha.

Below the dam there was a bridge & also a well maintained ford which I assume would be for any stock trucks taking sheep in and out of the surrounding high country stations. We took the bridge on the way over and the ford on the way back to clean the wheels, although it happened to be a bit deeper than it looked. No harm done though just a clean belly & a few raised eyebrows.

We drove on for a short distance, the road carries on into the interior for miles and actually joins up with the Old Dunstan Road, another 4WD road we want to travel when we “do’ the Maniatoto area. That in turn leads to the Serpentine 4WD road which I definitely want to travel, it would take us to the most isolated church in the country. In the meantime our road turns into a 4WD track  not far from where we turn around and is closed over winter because of snow. We might just come in from the other side one day.

While David turned around I got out to take a photo of the these sheep and the lake from another angle. Still not a tree in site.

And then we headed back up the road towards home stopping at the top of the ridge for one last look at the lake & the beautiful sky and to grab a photo of this abandoned tractor overgrown with tussock.

Back into rolling farmland with the road snaking across the ridge. We took the Millers Creek route at the junction and while it was a little quicker the road was a lot narrower & quite corrugated. We decided the Roxburgh East road was the one we’d travel with the fifth-wheeler on the back.

We had a fabulous day and I would recommend the trip to anybody that has the time, & especially to those who love wide open spaces and fishing.

And in case you missed the link, here it is for the Lake Huts & Longdrops

Horseshoe Bend & the Lonely Graves

The next day we decided to do a tiki-tour to the little settlement of Beaumont which is 35kms further down the river and where one of the very few bridges crosses the mighty Clutha.

Before we left I dove up the river to get a photo of the Roxburgh Bridge.

Now that we have been following the river downstream from its outlet back at Lake Wanaka I’ve discovered that most of the bridges are historic and usually painted in either red or blue. By my count there are only 13 opportunities to cross the river in it’s entire 338km length. One of these is a dam wall (Roxburgh), another a suspension bridge for foot traffic only & one other that I’ll keep as a surprise.

So far I have taken photos of 11 of the crossings; of the two that I have missed, one is on a main road to the West Coast, back in Albertown which we will cross again at some stage & the other (at Beaumont) was covered in scaffolding and didn’t look that photogenic. Hopefully we’ll pass over that again sometime in the future and then I’ll have the full set!

The Roxburgh Bridge, like the Alexandra Bridge has the old piers of the original bridge nearby, in fact two sets of remains, one on either side of the new bridge.The remains in the right hand photo are of the 1875 bridge. After looking for the build dates of the earlier bridges I came across this information, very interesting-

“Bridging the Clutha was a considerable challenge, which became clear in the great flood of 1878. The Bannockburn bridge on the Kawarau River was swept away, and its wreckage destroyed the Clyde bridge on the Clutha, which in turn ruined the Roxburgh bridge, a laminated wooden arch, only erected in 1875. Further downstream the Beaumont bridge was washed away and it in turn destroyed the Balclutha bridge.”

By driving to Beaumont we would be able to follow the road down the north side of the river (the true left), cross over at the Beaumont Bridge and come back to Roxburgh via the main state highway. The very new & very impressive Clutha Gold Cycle & Walking Trail also follows this same loop, the cycle trail is a continuation of the Roxburgh Gorge trail I talked about in the previous post. They are pretty impressive trails and have had a lot of money spent on them. The track ran past Pinders Pond, between us & the river, and although its out of season at the moment, we saw quite a number of people using it.

The track follows some of the old rail corridor through the Teviot Valley & the Beaumont Gorge with all new bridges over any creeks & streams, there’s plenty of signage, fencing & gates down both sides of any farmland it passes through, tiny cattle stops & cyclist sized Give Way signs at each outlet back onto the road.

There are a number of historic buildings & places to stop at along the trail. Many of the buildings are left over from the railway including the Teviot NZR goods shed and this old water tower just along the road from Pinders Pond.

Two more historic places I had marked down to check out were the Lonely Graves & the restored Horseshow Suspension Bridge both near the old Horseshoe Bend gold diggings. It’s actually quite a drive to visit both these sites, it wasn’t so bad for us as we were exploring along the road anyway but if you planned to visit from the main road as you were passing through you have to cross over at either Beaumont or Millers Flat and travel along a narrow gravel road for a good few kilometres. The Beaumont end is especially narrow & isolated as you’ll see further down.

The Lonely Graves have quite a story behind them. The story goes (& there is dispute of how true this is) that in 1864, William Rigney found a shivering dog beside the dead body of a young man. The police were notified but nobody claimed the body. Rigney dug the grave and the many of the men from the diggings attended the funeral. The pine slab with these words burned on- “Somebody’s Darling Lies Buried Here” marked the grave (it’s now inside a glass case attached to a second headstone).  When Rigney died in 1912 he was buried alongside as he had wished. His stone was engraved- “Here lies William Rigney, the man that buried Somebody’s Darling”. How wonderful is that & I’d like to think its entirely true! It’s kind of romantic too. I wonder what happened to the dog.

Very near the graves is the fully restored Horseshoe Bend suspension bridge which was built in 1913 at the narrowest part of the Clutha in this area. It was to replace an old pulley chair that was at the time the only way for the children of Horseshoe Bend to cross the river to attend school. It must have been terrifying sitting in a rickety old chair as it was pulled across the mighty Clutha with it’s deep water & foreboding swirling currents below.

The bridge was also used by farmers to get stock across the river and is now the only remaining suspension bridge on the river. It is 70 metres long & swings 75 metres above the river. We only had a short walk to the bridge from our side but there is an hour long walk to it from the main highway on the other side.

Back on the road we continued on towards Beaumont, the road, while still ok, looked a little less travelled and the area more remote. We had a bit of Mexican stand off when we came across this bull. He was reluctant to move from his mates on the other side of the fence. He backed off with his head down at one stage and then took off ahead of us down the centre of the road which was fenced close on both sides. We tried it slow so he could turn & run back past us; that didn’t work, we tried it fast; he could run faster, we tried it stopped & he just stood & looked at us. In the end he trotted behind a road side bush and we zoomed past before he could emerge on the other side. Later we passed a learner driver heading his way & wondered what the stand off would be like for them.

"Halt who goes there?!"

We hadn’t realised that it was quite so back country & in fact it’s lucky we didn’t have the fifth-wheeler on the back as we soon realised we’d have had to turn around (if we could have found a turning point, they were few & far between) and drive all the way back the way we came especially when we got to the very narrow Tallaburn Bridge. There would have been no way the fifth-wheeler could have squeezed through here. The bridge has actually been built over the metal supports of the old railbridge. No wonder it is so narrow.

Finally we reached the end of the road where we stopped briefly at the Beaumont Hotel to check out the camp site facilities, it’s listed in our directory & was recommended by a fellow “full time on the roader”. It looked ok and had the added benefit of drinks & meals available in the pub but we decided we’d head further on down the road when it came time to move.

We headed back home along SH8 stopping at Millers Flat to take a photo of another baby blue bridge over the Clutha.

We also stopped for afternoon tea in a lovely reserve beside the river and across the road from this long abandoned shop which is now beside the much bigger Four Square store. I liked the look of Mr Four Square on the roof of the shed behind the store. He looked right out of place thumbing a lift atop an old garage.

Then it was back to Pinders Pond in time to catch some more reflections before the sun went down.