“The Nevis”- There & Back: Part 2

This may be the last blog post for a few days as it looks like we'll be out of internet range this coming week.

Continued on from Part 1

We left the Lower Nevis settlement, or what is left of it, and continued on towards the gorge.
I had a chuckle as we passed the only “road” that branches off the Nevis, it runs a short distance down to the river. It’s shown in my map book & on TomTom. Imagine the surprise if you blindly followed directions to the wrong Robertson Road.

Commissioners Creek, the first ford (to be followed by 29 others from here to the other end of the valley) This creek was the source of many of the water races that were used for sluicing, the remains of five races could be seen on the nearby hillside, the lower races provide low pressure for ground sluicing while the higher races were used for hydraulic elevation sluicing.

This ford was the first place we thought might cause concern for bigger vehicles driving the road and was the only sign we saw of the flood damage mentioned on the sign at the beginning of the road.

As we approached the gorge there were large piles of stacked stones on either sides of the road & river, this was a a major Chinese working claim & throughout the gorge were more signs of both Chinese & European workings and the occasional stone remains of huts.

The gorge road is very narrow in places and drops sharply on occasion but generally its quite a reasonable track. Again there would be a few places where a bigger vehicle would struggle to get traction up a sharp incline.

Amongst the remains of houses & huts through the gorge is the former 1880s “Loch Linnie” homestead (bottom left). Just a short distance up from the homestead & in good repair is a stone hut (bottom right) This former home was later used as a mustering hut and apparently, recorded on the ceiling are the names of the yearly mustering gangs. I couldn’t get across to it as there was a large sluicing pond and deep creek separating me from the homestead & stone hut. I think you can drive around the other side  and walk in but it was about now that we decided we’d better turn around and head for home.

I could see the huts at Roaring Lion Creek (where we’d had lunch on our 4WD safari) off in the distance & as it had taken a good 3 hours to get this far we thought we’d better start the return journey so we would be off the road before dark. It was a whole different view heading back through the gorge.

There were just two gates to open and close on this section of the road although we passed through about half a dozen already open gates. The road is closed for winter from here (behind us) to Garston. it's closed from the beginning of June until the end of September. As you can see from the shot up sign & battered gate some people take exception to that!

Back to the top of the Carrick Range and the weather looks to have cleared a little.

“Long & Winding Road” “Take the High Road” “Long Road Home”……

One last stop to see if Mt Cook has appeared, it hadn’t and these merinos weren’t very impressed at being disturbed while licking their salt blocks. At first I thought they were checking out a whole lot of rubbish somebody had left behind, it looked like fast food wrappers. I was all ready to fetch a bag from the ute to pick it up when I realised what they in fact were. By then the sheep had high-tailed it out of there.

And so that was that, we have now driven the “Nevis”, a 75km road through a remote high country valley with stunning views and a stark but beautiful landscape..........wait, that’s not quite true. We did miss about 4kms in the centre by not driving to Roaring Lion Creek where we had finished on the safari. Another road trip to mirror our tramps, there & back & miss the middle bit!

“The Nevis”- There & Back: Part 1

You will remember that we drove the Upper Nevis when we did the 4WD safari over Nokomai Station back in February. After we left Arrowtown we planned to stay in Cromwell (beside the lake again) for a few days so we could explore the Lower Nevis & the Nevis Gorge before we left the area. We were hoping for a fine day but with rain forecast we decided to drive it the afternoon we arrived at Lowburn, it was dry but with high cloud and haze.

The north end of the Nevis Road starts out the back of Bannockburn where it climbs sharply up Long Gully on the Carrick Range. Along the way we pass Dead Horse Pinch; many horses didn’t make it up this steep incline when pulling wagonloads of mining dredge pieces up into the valley. The high altitude Nevis Valley, was first settled by pastoral farmers in the late 1850s & then my gold miners in the 1860s.

Looking back from the top of the range we can see all the way up the Upper Clutha Valley, including Cromwell and Lake Dunstan. The Pisa Range is to the left, the Dunstan Mountains to the right & according to the signpost & a farmer who stopped to tell us, Mt Cook and the Southern Alps can be seen at the top left of the lake. On a clear day. Which it wasn’t.

At the summit- Duffers Saddle1300m; it was considerably colder at the top with a few snow patches in the lee of the rock stacks left over from the heavy fall that the region had a week or so ago. Behind the schist rocks which are known as “The Two Sisters” are the Remarkables.

The dry tussock landscape is covered in clumps of speargrass & dotted with huge & wonderfully shaped schist tors.

The road is dry and dusty as it snakes its way across the top of the saddle and then drops dramatically down into the valley below.

The Nevis River and the Lower Nevis Valley stretch out in front of us. The valley consists of two sections, each is about 6kms long separated by a 4km gorge. We can see the beginning of the gorge at the far end. The second section is where we made it to when we came in from the other end.

In the photo below, the road can be seen running along the lower ridge at the right. Much of the high country seen across the valley belongs to Ben Nevis Station and up behind the station is Ben Nevis itself, which is 2234m high. We’ve actually spent a bit of time at another Ben Nevis, Ben Nevis (1344m) is near Fort William in Scotland and is the highest peak in the British Isles. We were there for the Downhill Mountain Bike Championships a few years ago when we had a team racing our 2Stage Bikes. NZ’s Ben Nevis is a baby amongst our mountain peaks, our highest mountain is Mt Cook (3754m) which would be a giant at nearly three times the height of Scotland’s Ben Nevis.

Down in the valley there are very few signs of settlement over 150 years ago when up to 600 people lived along the river in two settlements. An abandoned house & a prospector & his caravan on the river not too far from the bridge; we saw the claim sign nailed to a pole at the roadside, are reminders of present day habitation while a stone wall is all that’s left of the “Nevis Crossing Hotel”, it now forms part of the Ben Nevis Station’s cattle yards and across the river a few broken stone walls are the only signs of buildings from the Nevis Crossing settlement all that time ago.

The Nevis River bridge dates from 1904 and replaced the original bridge which was swept away by great sheets of ice after the Nevis thawed when the river froze in 1903. This was & is still is a harsh and unforgiving environment especially in winter. A cluster of stone & wood buildings behind a woolshed belong to Ben Nevis Station. Cattle gathered on the road ahead of us as we approached the woolshed & when I get out to take a photo of the buildings two farm dogs come bounding down the driveway to see who had stopped. They give the cattle a quick burst around the paddock & then retreated back up the drive, satisfied they were still the boss.

Further along the road we take a short detour to the lonely Nevis Cemetery set up a slight rise with the huge expanse of the valley stretched out in front of the graves, Pioneer land owners and miners laid to rest overlooking the land they worked & loved. The silence of the valley filled the still air.

That was until far off in the distance we could here a vehicle approaching, the farmer who had stopped to tell us about Mt Cook. He must have stopped somewhere along the way.

We are now approaching the Lower Nevis Settlement, the main town of the valley from 1863 to 1953, though only a few buildings now remain. Over half of the original settlement was destroyed as a result of dredging operations in the early 1900s. This earth & corrugated homestead is obviously still looked after if not lived in going by the huge mown front yard, perhaps its now used as a “fishermans retreat”.

Just a little further on are the remains of Elliot’s Nevis Hotel, which was destroyed by fire in 1917 and another homestead, a 1903 wooden & corrugated house which is still being lived in by the descendants of the Adie family, early settlers of the valley. And its now that we see that “the farmer” that stopped to tell us about Mt Cook lives in the homestead.

And across the road he has a well manicured yard that contains many relics from the early gold mining period and settlement of the valley. This is also a POP, a park over property for motorhomers who decide to drive the road in their motorhomes. Most sized vans would be able to get to this point in the valley if coming in from the Cromwell end although the steep climb up the Carrick Range might foil a few. More adventurous souls in smaller vans could venture further on into the gorge and out the other end to Garston but this would only be during summer and after a long dry period as there are many fords to cross at the top end of the road (see the link at the top of this post if you're wanting to check out the full road)

The Adie family still have a claim which lies on the slopes behind the house in Stewart Gully, we can see the sculptured sluice markings from the road. There are many signs of the wide spread gold mining throughout the valley from the sluice marks along the slopes to the piles of tailings the dredges have left along the river terraces. Because of the harsh environment and the way the ground has been left after the mining has finished the land has has not restored itself; rabbits & briar bushes have taken over where the tussock has refused to grow.

David found this quite distressing, the destruction of an environment because of man’s greed, nowadays it wouldn’t happen, the land would have to be restored to its former state. If a permit to mine was in fact granted. It didn’t worry me so much, this is part of our history and it’s great that we can still see how things were achieved and marvel at the tenacity of our forefathers.

To be continued.......Part 2

Crown Range & Cardrona

Another blog from a couple of weeks ago... While we were in Wanaka with the fifth-wheeler safely parked up at the camp ground we took a drive over the Crown Range, which at 1076m at its summit, is the highest main road in New Zealand. There are two roads between Wanaka & Queenstown, the Crown Range is a lot shorter than the other route through Cromwell and along Lake Dunstan but the Crown Range can be a much more difficult road to travel especially during winter when it is often closed due to snow fall. It also used to have a gravel section but now it is fully sealed and not that difficult to drive providing care is taken on the Queenstown end where there are dozens of short & steep switchbacks.

There are a few free camping areas along the road that we wanted to check out and while we knew that the size of our rig would probably prevent us from crossing the road we wanted to check it out just to be sure. And sure enough the first sign we see tells us that 12.6m is the maximum length including a trailer. Hmmmm……we’re 14 metres, what’s 1.4 metres between friends?

Unfortunately for me the day is overcast but it’s our only free day for awhile and I know that I can’t always have a sunny blue sky day so I’ll have to do my best with the photos. Once again the autumn yellows are stunning against the tussock covered hills and vivid green of crop paddocks.

As we drive up the Cardrona Valley towards the range I spot a popular tourist attraction, the infamous Cardrona Bra Fence, a place where long ago (1999) someone added 4 bras to a rural fence (no one knows by who or why but it was sometime between Christmas & New Year which might explain the why). Then others added more bras until those few had grown into hundreds. Over the years there has been many attempts to have the bras removed and in fact the fence has been cleared a number of times only to have more bras appear within days. I think the opposition have now given up hope of having it gone as it stretched for hundreds of metres with probably more than 1000 bras of all colours shapes & sizes attached.

After the bra fence our next stop was at the much photographed, iconic & historic Cardrona Hotel which has this old car permanently parked outside, an ideal prop! Cardrona was originally a small gold mining settlement on the banks of the nearby Cadrona River and there are a few buildings left from the era along with a lot of new comers. Cardrona settlement is also below the very popular Cardrona skifield and I bet the hotel would be a hive of activity after a good days skiing.

We carried on up the Crown Range until very near the end where we reached the summit. It was by now cold & overcast with low cloud. Not very good to take in the views at all. Although cloud covered the surrounding mountains we could see the netting covered vines of the Gibbston Valley vineyards far below.

And, this looking up towards Queenstown with the Kawarau River winding its way towards the Kawarau Gorge. Chard Farm Winery & its narrow access road can be seen across the hidden river. On a clear day the Queenstown Airport’s runway is a straight line at the head of the valley. Planes often fly past the summit at what would seem eye level as they approach the runway.

And here is where we would be foiled in our attempt to drive the Crown Range with “Out There” on the back. The dozens or so short switchbacks that carry us down from the Crown Terrace to valley floor below. The corners are very tight and we would have to take them wide to get around them using up the otherside of the road. Not a good idea on such a busy road where you can’t see vehicles approaching. David thought at night it wouldn’t be a problem, you would see the other lights approaching & be able to time the corners to suit. We won’t be trying that out any time soon!

Taken out the window from one of the switchbacks; Arrowtown in all its autumn splendour tucked in below the Crown Range to the right and Coronet & Brow Peak away to the left.

After a short drive to check out the Arrow basin and where we might be parked up for the rally we turned around and headed back to Wanaka over the Crown Range again.

Our road trips are starting to mirror out tramping tracks; there and back on the same route. Still it was a pleasant drive and had we wanted to, I’m sure we would have been able to tow the fifth-wheeler in as far as the summit, we just would have had to tow it out the same way afterwards. The few camping areas we could identify weren’t actually that big and in weather like we had, didn’t look that appealing, so it wasn’t a problem in the end either.

Within a few days of our Crown Range road trip there was a solid fall of snow and the road was extremely busy as people made their way up the range to play in the first fall of winter (we drove past the bottom through the gorge).

Queenstown, a Special Bird & a Special Day

It was wonderful to catch up with our Invercargill family again albeit just overnight but we made the most of both days & in fact when we left them in Queenstown mid afternoon on the second day they didn’t leave for their 3 hour drive home to Invercargill until early evening after doing some shopping & visiting the heated pool in Frankton.

After exploring Arrowtown the afternoon they arrived we had a lovely BBQ lamb roast dinner in their chalet at the holiday park. This was made all the more special when I was taken by surprise (well, surprise until Cameron turned the lights off) when after dinner, Rachel, Ollie & Ruby emerged from the bedroom with a candle lit birthday cake, present & glowing balloons! I was tickled pink.

My birthday is actually today but this year I’m having a great run up to my special day. Because we weren’t sure where we’d be on the actual day, David & I went out for dinner in Arrowtown last week to celebrate it.

We’d been recommended La Rumbla by a guy collecting money at the Autumn Festival and it turned out to be an excellent choice. We had to book ahead due to the festival being on & it’s popularity & it was indeed a very busy restaurant with great atmosphere on the night. It doesn't look anything special here but believe me the décor inside was perfect. La Rumbla is a tapas/small plate restaurant with a mix of dishes from Mexico, Spain, France & NZ and has been set up by a couple that have had a lot of experience in hospitality, one half of the partnership, Penelope Johnson also set up the well known Botswana Butchery restaurant a few years ago.

There was a good selection of dishes available & we thoroughly enjoyed the five we chose. We shared them between us as you can do with tapas and would have ordered more if the waitress hadn’t  warned us that these were “kiwi tapas”- big servings! And they were.

There was an extensive wine list, as you would expect in a region well known for its vineyards and I managed to choose a newly released (& rather expensive as it turned out, but hey you only live once) bottle of 2013 China Terrace Chardonnay from the Gibbston Valley Winery. And it was a lovely drop but somehow I just couldn’t shake off the thought that that bottle of wine could have paid for a few nights in a camp ground….squeak, squeak.!! Anyway we had a fabulous night and would highly recommend La Rumbla.

After our BBQ lamb the night before we had a lovely cooked breakfast with the family before they checked out and then we all drove through to the holiday meca of Queenstown on what was another glorious autumn day. We parked near the waterfront and spent a couple of hours watching the water activities and enjoying the sun.

There was a good range of water craft enjoying the calm waters of Lake Wakatipu and it didn’t take long for Ollie & Ruby to talk their parents into taking them out on the 3 wheel aqua bikes. Too much like hard work I warned them;  I’ve been on them before and they are very hard to pedal. Luckily they only had 20 minutes between them otherwise they might have paddled off around the point never to return.

While waiting for their turn on the aqua bikes we spotted another fast & furious craft speeding through the water offshore. This is a Seabreacher which is a fully sealed jet-ski-engined “sea missile” that looks like a shark although they have orca look-alikes too. This jetboat-hybrid can plunge two people under the water at 60km/h and then hurl them into the sky. This one actually disappeared under the water before bursting out but I missed that shot. Kind of strange seeing a shark in a lake though.

Just as the family finished up on the bikes I spotted an unusual bird in amongst the ducks & scaup that were cruising along the foreshore. It was a great thrill to realise that it was an Australasian Crested Grebe (Kamana), a fairly rare bird in New Zealand and one that is only found in the South Island. There are only 5-600 birds in total scattered around a few provinces,  they're usually found on the higher alpine lakes.

This bird is an immature & quite possibly the offspring of a pair of grebe that are known to frequent the bay in front of Queenstown. Mature birds have a lot more colour; bright chestnut & black cheek frills that they use in elaborate & bizarre mating displays. This bird wasn’t that worried about all the activity going on and seemed quite relaxed as he(or she) preened and prodded at his feathers and did a few stretches (I thought he looked like he was sunbathing).

What a great way to finish a couple of special days! Another one to cross off my “twitcher’s” list (although I’m not a true twitcher, just an average birder)

We're now parked at Lowburn back in Cromwell, for the third time, this time it's just about deserted with only half a dozen vans parked up overnight. I took the photo on the blog banner yesterday afternoon when a heavy rain storm blew through. It was gone within the hour & today is sunny & hot again.  I wanted to do the other end of the Nevis Road  (which climbs the range behind Cromwell) before we move on & I needed to get my hair cut, stock up again with groceries & have a birthday breakfast at a local café.  When I woke up this morning I told David all I want for my birthday was 40 litres of water. Forty litres would give me one long hot shower! Movanners out there will certainly relate to this.

We'll be moving on towards Alexandra tomorrow and then back down to Invercargill for the Bluff Oyster Festival before then heading north for winter. And I may have put a few of you wrong with my snow blog, "heading north" means to the north of the South Island not back to the North Island. We haven't finished with down here yet!

A “Shiny” Trip to Macetown

Since arriving in Arrowtown I have had one particular activity at the top of our “must do” list; taking the ute on a 4WD expedition to the remains of the historic gold mining settlement of Macetown which is located deep in the mountains, 15kms from Arrowtown up the Arrow Gorge. The only way of visiting Macetown is by walking (6-8hrs one way), by mountainbike or horse (3-4hrs) or by 4WD following the Arrow River through the gorge for 1-2hrs.

For those that haven’t read this blog, a “shiny” is what the dedicated 4WD drivers, with their off-road 4WDs, call our “shiny” 4WD vehicles, ones that are usually driven on the road and are only occasionally taken off-road and mostly never see any mud.

Those signs read "Back Country Road Deep Fords" & "Council Road Maintenance Ends Here"

We had a few days free between the rally & before the family arrived and I had been keeping a keen eye on the weather as I knew we wouldn’t be able to do the trip after rainfall  because of river level. I also wanted a sunny day for my photos; Macetown, like Arrowtown, has lots of  autumn colour too.

So with Tuesday’s weather forecast looking great we were up early with picnic lunch packed, gear in the ute firmly secured & my DOC “Visiting Macetown” information booklet, which I had bought especially for the trip, at the ready, we headed off down the road to the river below town which is where the 4WD track begins with the first crossing of the Arrow River.

It was about here that David wondered how many fords there were to cross. “Oh, hadn’t I told you how many?”, “I’m sure I did….. well now let me see….” as I read from the booklet “The main limitations to year-round visits to Macetown are the depth of the 22 fords in the Arrow River and mud, & ice during winter. From spring to early summer, the river normally runs high from snow melt. It is usually at it’s lowest…….. “TWENTY TWO?!!!!” he shouted, “that means 44 crossings there & back?” “Bloody hell!” I didn’t like to tell him that most of the track is single lane with few passing opportunities and some of it follows along the edge of high bluffs with sheer drop offs into the gorge below (a bit similar to the road into Skippers Canyon)

We set off up the deeply pot holed & bumpy dirt track beside the river, we assumed that it must have been so rough because, being so close to town, a lot of vehicles would cross the ford and drive a little way down the track out of curiosity. It got a little better but not much and within a couple of minutes we were onto another ford, and then another & before long we’d crossed five.

They weren’t easy fords either, the river was flowing fast and there were plenty of deep holes & big rocks littered the riverbed. Generally it was shallow enough but there were no defined areas to cross and we had to get out at each ford to plan the path we’d take. If it had been summer, it would have been easier to wade through & walk ahead of the ute but with the recent snow fall the water was ice cold. Some crossings were actually driving up the river for 50-60 metres before finding the track out. The sun glare off the water was also making it hard to see the large rocks and in the shade it was ten times worse.

You’ll remember the water pipe that cut across the paddock where we were parked for the rally, well here it is again. Tracking down the river cutting from side to side carrying water to the farms in the Arrow basin. It was about here that I had that uncanny feeling somebody was watching us. I looked up and I spotted the cycle track running along the edge of the gorge high up above us. And then I spotted the cyclists.

We took our time and managed to cover a couple of kilometres before resting on a shingle flat while we let a digger pass by. A digger! Not quite what you expect to see up an isolated (except for the cyclists) river gorge. David spoke to him and he said he was only going as far as the next pipe crossing to clear some trees, he told us the river was low but there were some deep holes & big rocks to avoid (nothing new there). He then trundled off up the middle of the river shifting rocks as he went. He would have been great to follow if he’d of been going all the way.

Three more fords crossed and we caught up to the digger.

While we waited for him to clear the slip (and a few boulders) we had a “round table” and decided that with eight fords down & 14 still to go and then having to repeat them all again on the way home it was just going to be too tough & quite stressful. David was worried that he was going to cause damage to the sills or underneath the ute on the rocks and also the holes in the river were getting a little deeper and more frequent. The sun would have gone from the gorge on the way home making the river harder to read & we were worried we’d get stuck & not be able to get help. So deciding “discretion is the better part of valour” & this “shiny” chickened out. We turned around and headed for home. And it was just as well as it was very difficult trying to read the fords on the way back too, they looked totally different coming from the other direction.

While we were checking out one crossing I looked back at the ute to see a tiny bird flitting about, landing on the mirror, clinging to the wipers & flying at the side windows. It was a female tomtit (miromiro) and I thought she might have been chasing bugs, they are usually in the bush, quite timid and don’t hang around when you spot them but this little one stayed put when I walked back towards her. And it was then that I realised she was attacking & trying to chase her reflection in the mirror, in the window glass and even in the paintwork. She had her hackles up and was flitting about not quite knowing who to chase next! I guess that was my consolation prize!

Maybe we’ll revisit the trip another time when we’re in Arrowtown. We were both disappointed but knew we’d made the right decision. I’ve heard that in spring Macetown in surrounded by thousands of daffodil flowers, bulbs that were planted by miners that have spread out far & wide. Now that would be a fabulous sight. Maybe we’ll have to walk in (I don't think so) or maybe in the summer I'll walk ahead of the ute across the fords.

In the meantime we had to make do with the partly rebuilt Arrowtown Chinese gold miner settlement just below the town on the banks of Bush Creek, a tributary of the Arrow River. This was made far more enjoyable by the fact that the family had arrived and the kids were keen to explore, racing here there and everywhere.

Ruby & Ollie enjoying the autumn leaves.