Morning Glory Spillway & Cambrian

Ten kilometres east of St Bathans is the Falls Dam, a rock-fill dam that was built in 1934 (another Depression era irrigation scheme) by damming the Manuherikia River at the top of a narrow gorge, the river’s headwaters start high up in the snow covered Hawkdun & St Bathans Ranges and flow through the Manuherikia Valley before its confluence with the mighty Clutha River at ‘the bend’ in Alexandra.

We turn off the road and head up a gravel track alongside the river for 5-6 kms…. 

…entering the bottom end of the dammed gorge. We pass four old chimneys on the banks of the gorge not too far from the dam wall. We check them out and decide that there were two identical houses on the site at some time in the past, possibly construction workers houses. Looking over the edge of the narrow track on our way down to the dam wall we can see a tiny power house tucked in under the wall.

But what makes this dam more interesting than most is it’s unique spillway, this is a morning glory spillway. I am assuming it’s name comes from the morning glory flower that looks very similar, the flower’s white veins mirrored in the fins of the spillway. Unfortunately there was no spill happening, I guess we’d have to come back when the spring snow melt happens to see water pouring over the edge and down the hole.

There was locked gate with a “No Entry” sign which would have been easy to climb, but frankly deep dark holes like that scare the bejesus out of me so I quite happily stayed on the right side of the fence. Unlike a family who arrived not long after us, they climbed the gate, walked to the edge and peered in. And I’ve seen photos of people standing on the concrete leaning over the railing right on the edge of the hole. No thank you!

On our way back to camp, we stopped at the top of the hill overlooking the St Bathans settlement, the snow covered Mt St Bathans and the Blue Lake, on this day looking very grey and uninviting.

We had a few hours left in the day so we carried on past the Domain Campground and down the road to check out one more tiny village before we headed off to Ranfurly. You might remember in my St Bathans post I mentioned the rivalry known locally as “The War of the Roses”, between the Irish settlers (Catholic) at St Bathans and the Welsh settlers (Protestant) here at Cambrian.

Known as Welshmans Gully during the 1860s Otago gold rush, it was later renamed Cambrian, the Latin name for Wales. It would seem that some call it Cambrians and others Cambrian, I couldn’t find out which is correct or if in fact both are OK to use, as the old wooden school, built in 1873, was closed. History and information boards on the settlement are displayed inside.

Cambrian is now a tiny creative community, sculptures and other artistic works of art are dotted along the short main street (the only street). And not too many people know, but Cambrian is also the home of Graham Sydney, the well known NZ artist who made the Maniototo famous with his paintings of the vast dry plains, tiny abandoned buildings & the surrounding mountains and ranges.

The locals love their old homes and especially the restored mud-bricked cottages. There are a few newer homes and cribs(holiday cottages) and some still to restore.

I thought the sign on the gate of this cottage said ‘Beware of the Dog’ and I was thinking that’s a bit weird there are no fences to keep it in. Until I moved closer to see that it said ‘Beware of a Hug!’

A lovely rest area has been developed at Cambrian Common Forest. There are dozens of trees, including Redwoods which will be here for many years, a sign encourages visitors to wander amongst the  snowdrops and emerging bluebells.

I found this lovely cottage which I’d be happy to live in, it's my kind of house. I’m not so sure I’d like to live in Cambrian though. It’s a sleepy little settlement off the beaten track at the base of the Dunstan Mountains where I’m pretty sure the winters would be fierce.

There’s a stone cairn at the entrance to the village, commemorating 150 years settlement of the area and the original cemetery beside it, with just the one enclosed gravesite and an old marker post all that is left.

We had one last stop on the way home so I could take a photo of this very old and unusual shaped woolshed.

And then back to the Domain to see if the next day brought better weather…I don’t think so.

Northbound along the Pacific Coast

An update post on our whereabouts; we’re moving quite quickly up the east coast heading for the top of the South Island at the moment.

Can you believe it? I didn’t take any photos while we were parked for 5 nights at Weedons in Christchurch. Probably because other than the day we arrived it was cold and wet for most of the time. I also spent alot of time catching up on photos and blog posts and didn’t want to add to the pile!
 
Typical Murphy’s Law though, the weather cleared as we hitched up to head out of Christchurch.We thought we might head to the NZMCA Park at Parnassus but it looked a little lonely & forlorn as we drove by, so we carried on, heading for Kaikoura.

Here’s us parked at the NZMCA Park which is beside the Kaikoura racecourse, it’s not the most photogenic site at ground level surrounded by loose boxes and open stalls but take the stairway up behind and the views are fabulous out over South Bay. The walkway crosses farmland behind and ends up in town, not on the Kaikoura Peninsula Walkway as I found out the last time we stopped here (there are plenty of links to click on in this post- they are the posts from our last visits)

We left the van hitched to the ute for the night, we often do that if we’re just staying overnight, it saves a little time in the morning. That was until I decided I should nip around the corner and out to Kean Point to check out the seals and especially the seal pups. There’s always adult or teenage seals at the point, lounging about in the carpark and over the boardwalk…

…and at this time of the year there are plenty of super cute seal pups wandering about or sleeping under the bushes. This slick little wet guy was keen to check me out and waddled along the bottom of the wall until he came to the steps which he then bounded up. He then decided to explore a puddle in the carpark and when I moved in to take a photo he mock charged me. He then charged a few others that approached him, he was having fun, he’d follow people along the road and when they stopped to say hello he’d charge them. Little tyke.

Then he decided to follow me up another stairway to where his playmates were sleeping under the bushes on a bank. He climbed over the concrete wall beside the steps, they are quite agile considering how awkward they look moving about and then made a nuisance of himself by clambering over the sleeping beauties. They didn’t seem to mind and either rolled over or curled back up to continue sleeping. Doesn’t the pup on the left look odd with it’s neck resting on a branch, he’s obviously had some good meals from Mum.

Other seals from the colony rested on the rock stacks beside the car park with the snow covered Kaikoura Range as a backdrop.

As I was driving back home I noticed the setting sun was causing some dark rays reaching down to the horizon out at sea. At first I thought it might have been my eyes and the angle I was looking through the glass of the car window. I pulled over to take some photos. These are called crepuscular rays, rays that stream through gaps in the clouds that are columns of sunlit air separated by darker cloud-shadowed regions. So in fact the darker lines aren’t the rays, they’re the cloud shadow, the lighter areas beside them are the rays.

The next day we stopped at a number of places of interest north of Kaikoura, the first was to check a rocky point where I’d seen dozens of Spotted Shags/Parekareka nesting the last time we passed by. There were just half a dozen early birds (cool- double entendre ;)) preparing their nests in the best spots; the deepest ledge on the vertical rock face.

I wonder how many chicks tumble over the edge and into the ocean below each season, last time I was here there were nests tucked into some very precarious spots on the wall above this prized ledge.

And of course the next stop had to be at Ohau Point to see the seal pup nursery at the waterfall. The last time we called here there were 50-60 pups clambering up the stream to the waterfall and swimming in the pool at the foot of the falls but it’s getting late in the season now and while there were dozens of bigger pups sunning themselves and sleeping on the rocks beside the sea there were only half a dozen smaller pups up near the waterfall and just one lone little guy swirling and flipping under the falls. This pair were keeping each other company near the stream, the one on the left wasn’t worried about me but his friend kept a wary eye(or two) on my movements.

So that’s what they mean about having eyes in the back of your head! And as you can see, they have HUGE eyes.

There’s a freedom camping area on the seaward side of the main highway at Paparoa Point, there’s also a seal colony nearby that ponged to high heaven and masses of tiny flies that had settled over the back of this caravan whose owners were certainly going to get a shock when they came home from exploring.

Our next stop over is at one our favourite places along the Marlborough/Canterbury coastline; the rugged and windswept Ward Beach. The camping area is part of a farm and is beside the Ward Reserve. An area has been cleared and fenced right above the beach and as long as you’re CSC (certified self-contained) and pay a donation to the farm owners, you’re welcome to stay.

There’s a garden of painted stones from visitors past and a pile of sturdy walking sticks at the gate. You’ll need a stick if you go for a walk, the beach is deep gravel and takes a bit of energy to walk over.

But its well worth a walk up the beach towards Cape Campbell where there are some huge limestone rock formations and a seal colony. We didn’t venture up there this time, I took this photo back in February….roll on summer!

I’ve been half-heartedly trying to catch the Aurora Australis (aka the Southern Lights) while we’ve been travelling the south but I either miss the night they play with spectacular colours for all to see with the naked eye or I forget to look to see what the prediction is when we are in a good viewing area. A couple of times I’ve found out too late or we’ve been parked in town or behind a hill or it’s way too cold or there’s no water for a reflection. Now that we’re moving north it’s getting harder to find the right area, I kicked myself last Saturday night (well actually Sunday morning) when we were parked at Kakanui on the cliff edge with a perfect view south and the lights put on a fantastic show…..while I slept on. I forgot all about it.

So I thought I might pick up a little of the lights from Ward beach if the call went out that the solar activity was increasing. So I set up the camera and waited….and waited. My activity alerts headed in the wrong direction, it was all quite on the southern front. I did get a few shots of the Milky Way and a little colour from around the edge of the huge hill in front of me but I’m thinking they are the light glare from Christchurch.

Now I’ll just have to wait until we’re back in down South to try again. I did do a shoot while we were in Winton, I drove around to the sports field on the edge of town where it was nice and dark, set my gear up and waited in the freezing cold with snow all around me. I didn’t last long, the first shots showed me that I had a two bloody power lines straight through the centre of the photo. Memo to ones self- check the view out before it gets dark.

Finally, after numerous visits to Ward Beach, we got to see the bulldozer launch the crayfishing boat off the beach. Every other stop the sea has been too rough. So when I heard a loud rumble early this morning I shot out of bed, threw on some clothes and grabbed my camera. The boats are stored in shed back up the road and the bulldozers are kept near where we’re parked.

Now you can see how loose the gravel is, and how hard the bulldozer has to work to tow the boat through.

The boat is backed into the water on the quiet side of the small bay and released from the cradle, it great to see it’s a cat (catamaran), perfect for the rough seas and a stable platform while they’re lifting and setting the cray pots (Ok Shellie, you’re not selling boats now)…

…the skipper then waits for the driver to park the ‘dozer….

…and board before they roar off up the coast.

We left before they returned and, not that they would have showed us, but I wonder what their catch was like. We stopped at one of the crayfish stalls on the main road north of Kaikoura the other day just to see how much they were charging. I nearly fell over, $78, SEVENTY EIGHT DOLLARS for the tiniest of crays a cray that looked more like a large prawn than a crayfish. And with two rental motorhomes and around six tourists eating a pile of crayfish on the table beside the stall they obviously have no trouble selling them.

We're now parked at another favourite of ours on the coast; the DOC Camp at Marfells Beach, just south of Seddon and beside the Grassmere Salt Lakes. Oh, it's a tough life...

Back to the Maniototo posts soon….

The Glory Hole

Before gold was discovered at St Bathans in 1863, the 120 metre high Kildare Hill stood where the Blue Lake is now located. (Don't forget to click on the photos to enlarge)

The hill was named after their home country by the Irishmen who made the original find. Sluicing whittled the hill down to become first the Kildare Basin, and as it sunk further it became known as the Glory Hole, celebrating the riches it yielded.

The Kildare Hill Claim became the site of the deepest hydraulic elevating operation in the world, an operation that would eventually turn a 120 metre hill into a 68 metre hole over 800 metres long. The hydraulic elevator acted like a giant vacuum cleaner, sucking water and gravel out of the pit to where it could be worked for gold.

Mining was halted in 1934 because the sides of the pit were getting too close to the town and once abandoned, the Glory Hole filled with water that became a striking blue colour, due to the high mineral content of the surrounding tailings. Hence today’s Blue Lake. Which I renamed the Green Lake. I think the blue must show a lot more in the summer, and of course when there’s a blue sky to reflect the colour.

I walked and drove over to the lake several times while we were at St Bathans Domain. Every time the rain stopped or the wind died down I’d race back over to check out the shooting conditions.

Just the once I managed a millpond lake to help with the reflections, and then it only lasted for about 30 minutes before a breeze came up again and the water rippled. And while it would have been nice to see the sun and a blue sky, the cloud cover helped with the reflections and there were no harsh shadows.

I spent a couple of hours exploring along the track that weaves in and out of the workings and along the lake edge, checking out the many coloured and textured bluffs, mounds and the tiny bays at water level. I had the whole lake to myself, not a soul in sight, just peaceful surroundings, a pair of ducks, a few song birds, a couple dozen rabbits and me.

A few more photos-

And finally one of the Blue Lake (looking a little green), and the only people I saw all afternoon who arrived just in time for me to capture them and give some perspective to the lake.

It’s hard to imagine that a place like the Blue Lake exists in high country New Zealand. With it’s gouged out white cliffs, pink, orange & grey hued mounds of tailings and deep green water it's like a beautiful but scarred moonscape. It should look totally out of place in the surrounding countryside yet it fits in perfectly. The Blue Lake is a hidden gem, one of those places that are well off the beaten tourist track but well worth the extra effort of visiting.

I definitely will be back in the autumn not only to see if I can shoot a ‘blue’ lake but also to see the surrounding willows in their autumn colours.

Historic St Bathans

After 6 nights we reluctantly decided it was time to move on from our comfortable parking spot behind the Commercial Hotel in Omakau.

And not least because we had sampled just about every dish on the pub menu! You would think that our expenses would have been less parked up in the countryside, but I think we had dinner at the pub four out of the six nights. Great for me not to worry about cooking after coming in from a long day of exploring and good for the hotel that we were repaying them for their generosity; free POP = meals in the hotel (although usually a CAP, over winter there is no power available). And I’d have to say that the meals were definitely a cut above the usual pub fare, probably because they do feed a lot of the Otago Rail Trail cyclists during the season. We also enjoyed the company of the locals and regulars each night and had a few good laughs with them.

Our next stop was at the DOC camp at St Bathans' Domain, just 34kms up the road and tucked into a corner below the Dunstan Mountains, St Bathans Range & Hawkdun Range (no wonder it was cold!).  It’s a huge camp ground and we were the only ones there for two of the three nights we stayed. That's if you don't count the hundreds of rabbits running about and the dozens of finches (and a nosy magpie) including the not often seen Green Finch. At one stage I counted 25 Green Finches feeding behind the van. It helped that I fed them a few handfuls of wild bird seed every morning.

Top- Green finches, male & female, centre- Yellowhammer(female), bottom left- Magpie, bottom right- Chaffinch(male)

On the last night another ute arrived and they set up a tent near the entrance, it rained overnight and they were gone early. We actually saw them again in Ranfurly later that day, where they booked a cabin for the night, probably because of their wet tent and the freezing cold weather.

Other than the occupants of the tent, we had St Bathans to ourselves. With a population of just 6 it’s not hard to see why. A track from the camp ground led past the rugby field and it’s rustic posts to the famed Blue Lake and the tiny settlement of St Bathans. Returning via the road we passed an old goat shelter with a new life- when we drove past here on the first day, we thought someone had hung out their underwear. Instead they had cut up their underwear and made flags out of them. And finally we caught a glimpse of spring, two cute lambs in a small home paddock.

We explored St Bathans main street on the first afternoon, it didn’t take long as it’s only  about half a km long. Present day St Bathans, now part of the Otago Goldfields Park administered by DOC, is a remnant of an old gold mining town originally named Dunstan Creek. Gold was discovered here in 1863 and over 2834 kilos of gold was extracted from the three largest mining operations. By 1864 1000 people lived in Dunstan Creek with a further 1000 in surrounding area including around 50 Chinese miners who lived in caves excavated in the local cliffs.

Dunstan Creek was changed to St Bathans in 1866 after miners requested the original name, given by the first surveyor of the district, be re-instated. By the late 1860s St Bathans was well established with 15 hotels, a number of gambling and dance halls and many businesses. Nowadays the local landmark, the Vulcan Hotel is all that remains of the hotels.

The shamrock on the front facade is a relic from the times of rivalry between the mainly Irish settlers from St Bathans and the Welsh settlers from Cambrian just down the road. The rivalry was known locally as “The War of the Roses” and at one time the acrimony between the villages was quite bitter. In the 1990s the hotel was put into a trust with shares owned by locals who lease out the hotel. There is also purported to be a friendly ghost in Room 1 of the hotel.

With nobody about and the welcome mat out at the Vulcan we decided to have lunch there. Well in fact we thought we might go for dinner but when David asked about booking for dinner the rather terse landlady said they were fully booked! ‘Really?’, he said with a raised eyebrow thinking of the masses of people he had seen in the last few hours. Not. I don’t think she liked David asking that. Luckily she was heading home (5 steps out the back door) and the barmaid who took over was very pleasant. We later learnt that there was a car or motorcycle club booked in for dinner.

Jack, the old Labrador kept a watchful eye on arrivals and departures and would barge his way through the front door whenever it opened. He’d then sit out on the road or across in the beer garden waiting for the next chance to return to his cushion in the lounge bar where he would wait to repeat the process all over again. I think Jack owns St Bathans, over the next couple of days I found him lounging on his back in the carpark, waiting for a tummy scratch (if I hadn't passed by he'd have been waiting all day), waddling down to the lake, and sitting on a bench seat up the road.

Unfortunately the weather was not the best while we were at St Bathans so there are no blue skies in these following photos of the historic buildings around town.

This is the most unusual Post Office building I’ve seen in a small town, and rather an imposing one at that. This one opened in 1909 and replaced an earlier small ‘dog box’ that began business in 1864. The building is now owned by DOC.

The Bank of New South Wales building was one of 3 banks in town and opened in 1864. It was also known as the gold office. It was moved to Oturehua (Idaburn Dam area) in the 1970s and the restored building was brought back to St Bathans by DOC in the 1980s.

Below is a selection of cottages and buildings from the main street of St Bathans including a couple that are replicas of old miners cottages that were on the same sites. They’re now used as holiday homes or are rented out for accommodation.

Top right is the ‘School House’, the large centre photo is ‘Rowan Cottage’,  owned by the local builder and timber merchant who built many of the houses in the district during the mining days. Second down on the left is the ‘Billard Room’ which was completed in 1881. It was part of the original Vulcan Hotel complex and was used as a temporary bar when the hotel burned down. Hay was stored in the loft and there were stables at the rear of the building. Bottom centre is the Pipe Shop which opened in 1866, it made sluice pipes for mining and later became a blacksmiths forge.

This cottage has a colourful history with the last occupier coming to St Bathans in the 1930s for his health. He had TB and St Bathans  had a reputation for ‘miracles’ because of the wonderful air. He was a cook for local shearing gangs and known for his short temper. He often got into arguments and would jump out of the truck and walk home, once returning with his shotgun to sort things out.

St Patricks Catholic Church was built in 1892 after the original church was destroyed in a storm. It is one of the few churches left with a surrounding graveyard and many of St Bathans early settlers are buried there.

At the other end of town is the St Alban of the Martyr Church and another favourite to add to my list. The original church blew down in a severe gale in 1870 and it’s replacement met a similar fate in 1883 (the wind must really blow in these parts).

Frederick Dalgety, founder of the stock and station agency Dalgety & Co, and then owner of Hawkdun Station bought the quarter acre section on which the church stood. He then arranged for a new church to be shipped out in sections from Britain, one of the first prefabricated buildings in New Zealand. He imported every item for the church including altar cloths and kneelers. Yet looking at the church and it’s corrugated iron exterior you would swear it was totally kiwi.

St Bathans main street looking down towards the Vulcan and the Blue Lake- through the trees at the end.

These are the old school ruins- the land and the ruins are for sale if you fancy building a home around them. The school was built in 1875 and enlarged in 1885 to cope with the growing population. Cracks appeared in the building after a large earthquake in 1943 forcing the school to close. Classes were held in the Post Office building until 1949.

On one of my walks back to the van, I decided to walk along Cemetery Road, a gravel track with a farm gate across the entrance. The road was not far from our camp at the Domain and I thought it might only be a short distance along the track to the cemetery. It turned out to be about 1.5kms along a rough farm track. I passed the remains of an old stone cottage along the way and being just before dusk there were dozens and dozens of rabbits running in all directions as I approached, it’s the most I’ve ever seen in this rabbit infested interior. The surrounding land alongside the track and throughout the cemetery were pitted with rabbit holes. Some areas were so bad it felt unstable walking over the top.

This is the public cemetery, and it’s where St Bathan’s non-Catholics were buried. It’s still in use today.

And I know you've probably been waiting to see photos of the main attraction at St Bathans, the Blue Lake. You'll have to wait just a little longer, the lake deserves it's own blog post.