A Wet & Noisy Easter- Part 2

Luckily we had a couple of fine days before Easter because we certainly didn’t see much sun over the long weekend. And little did we know when we arrived, that the lake was hosting a powerboat regatta over Saturday & Sunday and the boat ramp was closed to all other watercraft. Not that we would have gone fishing; all the fish would have been sent to the bottom of the lake in fright. This is becoming a bit of a habit, it’s now the second time we’ve gate-crashed a regatta, the other one was the Classic Boat Show at Lake Rotoiti. That would also explain why there were so many campers about and people fighting for space to set up their tents and motorhomes.

Unfortunately for the organisers and participants the heavens opened up on Friday evening and it rained solidly all night and into the morning when it became torrential, with rivers of water cascading through the camp. Our water collection container was filling in 5 minutes flat- that saved us a trip to the water tap. For the neighbours behind us, there was nothing for it but to hunker down with a stubby around the camp fire while the kids had a ball riding around and playing in the rain.

By early afternoon the rain had stopped and it was all go down on the foreshore.

A crane and digger were used to lift the bigger hydroplane boats into the water.

And then all hell broke loose. The noise, oh the noise- our poor ears! But what excitement.

There were some awesome looking machines out there.

This looks like a very expensive sport.

The best bit was actually how close to the shore they were as they raced past. A thrilling spectacle.

Mrs Frosty Boy did a roaring trade even with the odd shower passing through.

And then it was the turn of the pocket rockets, the Formula One hydroplanes.

More noise and more excitement, these guys can turn on a penny. I was waiting for one to flip they turned at such a tight angle.

The turning marker buoy was right out front of the spectators, the bigger boats had used the island as the turning point.

Once the F1s had been seeded they then raced by starting directly off the beach, after being held steady by supporters.

On ignition the boats burst out of the blocks at near full speed.

And then there were the little guys; the Clubmans & Juniors.

Well they were little boats, some of the guys weren’t so little.

The rain held off for the rest of the afternoon with just a couple of passing showers. Sunday dawned sunny and we decided we’d go for a drive to explore while it was fine. And to escape the noise. There’s only so much you can take when you’re not watching the races- a few of the campers were here just for the break, like us, unaware that the racing was on. I bet they wished they'd picked a different lake.

We returned late afternoon to find the racing still in full swing with a lot more spectators. A sunny holiday afternoon brings out the Sunday drivers.

We watched some of the last races from our door.

Monday morning dawned overcast and the rain set in again by mid-morning. Most had packed and left before it started although a few had to struggle packing up wet tents & wet kids in the heavy rain.

And then they were gone, the only evidence of an action packed weekend were the overflowing bins…

….and the rained filled tire tracks. At least some of the local residents were pleased with the outcome.

And then we were back to being on our own again. And we’re still waiting for some sun, overnight the rain was non-stop torrential, the noise on the roof deafening and it’s rained on and off all day. The mist and cloud sit low around the lake and it’s pretty miserable but we’ll sit it out for a day or two, there’s not much point moving when it’s like this all along the Coast.

A Quiet & Sunny Easter- Part 1

Famous last words…

Before I catch up-to-date on the blogs from the last week or so I wanted to tell you about our Easter. It’s a two part blog but I won’t keep you waiting tool long for the second installment.

Our visit started off well enough, we arrived at the DOC camp at Lake Kaniere on Tuesday well in advance of any campers coming to stay for the Easter holiday weekend. There's no camping allowed along the foreshore but there's plenty of views from up the back.

We had the place to ourselves the first night, we found an ideal area to set up camp; on the top level overlooking a section of the lake and a picturesque island just off shore. It’s a large camp site with multiple grassed levels with large bushes dividing up the various sections.

The lake is stunning, not a breath of wind to cause a ripple anywhere.

Just a few resident ducks including this female Paradise duck with her mate- they swim away the morning and then waddle up to the top level to graze on the grass and sunbath on the rocks near our van.

A male South Island Tomtit (Miromiro) calls our level and the level below his territory. He spends most of his time fighting his reflection in the car mirror. He does laps of his patch, around and around he flies, from tree to rock to picnic table to mirror to van to another tree and back to the mirror. I think he hopes that intruder will be gone by the time he gets back. Poor boy, another car pulls in and straight away he’s fighting that reflection too. His breast is a beautiful golden colour, he’s getting ready for the breeding season when it’ll turn even more golden. North Island tomtits have white breasts.

Then there are the usual suspects, about half a dozen weka, they wander about scavenging for scraps and calling loudly before scurrying off under the bushes chasing each other.

We do a bit of exploring on Wednesday and David inflates the dinghy later in the afternoon. He’s off fishing Thursday morning…

And catches his first perch which is released after he’s taken a photo. There are also salmon in the lake along with brown & rainbow trout. He has a couple of strikes but isn’t able to land any. He tells me that the lake is very dark, an inky blackness from the tannin stained water and it’s also very deep. Up near the top of the lake it’s also very pretty with flax and reeds reflecting in the still water.

On Friday we go exploring in the boat, right to the top where the reflections are. David trolls along the edges and I relax (as much as you can in a 3.5 metre dinghy).

We pass a bus freedom camping on the lake’s edge, they have an inflatable ready to go too. A little further on we see a person sitting on a large wooden seat & another skimming stones across the smooth water. I know there’s a lodge somewhere up near the top of the lake and wonder if they are from there. We later discover that there’s a short walkway down to the beach from the carpark at Dorothy Falls.

We stop on a beach to have lunch but can’t find a suitable log or rock to sit on and the pesky sandflies are annoying us again so we climb back into the boat and sit on the seats to eat lunch, floating just off shore in the peace and solitude…..until a fizz boat roars by. The sandflies still find us but don’t swarm as much as they do onshore. After lunch we move further down the lake and tie up to a fallen log. Directly behind the bush that fringes the lake is the beautiful Lake Kaniere Walkway (and mountain biking track); a 3.5hr 11km walk that follows the lake edge from top to bottom.

The cloud is closing in on the lake by the time we make our way back to the boat ramp and we can see a lot of activity along the foreshore.

There are now three caravans and their associated gazebos, BBQs and tables set up behind us and the level below us is also filling up fast…..

Ok, well it is Easter after all and this is the last chance many will have of going camping this summer. But it does seem rather busy all the same…..

To be continued……

Happy Easter Everyone- We're off to Lake Kaniere

Just a short blog post to let my regulars know that, rather than thinking we've disappeared off the face of the earth for the next week, we'll be enjoying ourselves at the Lake Kaniere DOC camp. Lake Kaniere is 22kms inland from Hokitika and I'm thinking that there won't be any cell phone reception there. After three mostly wet days at Punakaiki, we decided to head straight to the lake and get settled in there with a good site before the rush that'll probably happen over Easter.

Don't worry though, I'll resurface with a whole heap of blogs to catch you up to date, and some especially good ones too, of our visit to the Oparara Basin Arches north of Karamea and our time at the end of the road, Kohaihai.

Here's a taster; the Mirror Tarn at Oparara Basin.

Happy Holidays everyone, have an enjoyable & relaxing time, safe travels, and hopefully we'll all be able to catch the last of the summer sun (or some spring sunshine for those in the Northern Hemisphere).

Westport’s Wonderful Weather

Well, it was for four of the five days we stayed, the other day it was torrential rain which we were very grateful for; our vehicles needed a good wash down, they still had a salt covering from the storm that blew through when we were at Ward Beach three weeks ago. And with no water available at the NZMCA Park it was great to be able to put our collection containers out at the end of the awning and fill the water tank and our spare carry containers. This saved David at least one trip into town to fill them at the Countdown potable water tap (which is near the dump station which we couldn’t use as it was tucked into a corner).

Here’s a few more photos from our time in Westport-

In amongst the dunes beside the NZMCA Park is a freedom camping area that had at least 6-10 vehicles parked up every night; mostly hire motorhomes & sleeper vans. There’s not too many places in New Zealand where you’d be able to park overnight right on the beach like this, some visitors from overseas might think they’ve died and gone to heaven when they pull up on such a beautiful beach.

Westport’s  NZMCA North Beach Park from the beach. The tepee, I think, is courtesy of the Kiwi Experience Bus passengers; they come here for a sunset bonfire & drinks.

I took these photos especially for our friend Bluey, to show him what a good dog does when a pesky weka comes a calling. This little pooch must have a whole heap of willpower, either that or she’s too scared to move. Bluey, she is a looker, you could be in with a chance if you ever meet & can show her some restraint. When it comes to weka.

At the south end of the beach is the Buller River breakwater and the Westport Bar, a wild section of water that has claimed many lives and boats over the years. I missed getting a photo of a fishing trawler exiting the mouth as we arrived, there was a large swell and huge waves were rolling in. The boat rode over the top of them, crashing down the other side with sea spray flying in all directions. It made me feel sea-sick just looking at it. Later a very small and cute older fishing boat came up the channel, I was hoping to see it cross over so I could get some photos but it spent about half an hour going round and round in circles fishing for live bait and by the time we left it was still weaving about and the swell had subsided.

We’ve now been to the source of the Buller on Lake Rotoiti at the Nelson Lakes and to the mouth of the Buller here in Westport.

Before the tide turned and the waves settled there were a large number of surfers riding the waves on the north side of the breakwater. There was a lot of white water but a few good sized waves too. I even managed to catch a fish enjoying a wave (top right-it looks like a kahawai).

This little house was just down the road from the Park, it looks to have been part of the racecourse at some stage. A little harsh perhaps, but it’s aptly named ‘The Box’. Cute!

We visited Cape Foulwind, just south of Westport, where there’s a 2km coastal walkway between the lighthouse at the Cape and Tauranga Bay further south, where there’s a seal colony. Nearby are the Gibsons Beach sea stacks, there used to be a huge single stack further out called Giant’s Tooth but it crashed into the sea after an earthquake early last century.

We didn’t walk the track, there was a cool breeze blowing, it was getting late & we didn’t fancy retracing our steps to get back to the car afterwards. Instead we drove to the other end, to the carpark at Tauranga Bay and walked up to the seal colony.

It’s just a short walk to the lookout over the colony where a steady stream of visitors were hoping to catch sight of the seals. The last time I visited here, many years ago, there were hundreds of seals spread out over the rocks below but unfortunately today there were only a handful of pups playing in a pool while their mothers are away feeding at sea.

And if you didn’t have binoculars (like most of the visitors), or a camera with a good zoom, you would have been hard pressed to see them. This colony has nothing like the huge numbers of seals that are in the Kaikoura coast colonies.

We drove around Tauranga Bay and over to Nine Mile Beach which is a beautiful long isolated sandy beach backed by large dunes covered in marram grass. Today there was just the solitary figures of a horse & sulky rider working out before the rain arrived.

There was one last chore to do before we headed north towards Karamea. With only two public dump stations in Westport and both of them in the parking area of a supermarket we had to use New World who had the best access. Although they had no potable water so then it was across to Countdown for that.

Who in their right mind would team up a dump station with a supermarket? Not only is it a weird combination but also there's the tight maneuvering for bigger rigs inside the car park- especially on a Saturday morning.  I guess the supermarket came up with the idea, hoping we’d buy our groceries there while we dumped (and we did). In one door, out the other!

Denniston Incline - Part 2

Continuing on from Part 1

We followed the track away from the Incline area passing through regenerating bush on our self-guided walking tour. It’s along this steep bank that the Camp took shape. There was no order; shacks & huts, some still half canvas, sprouted wherever their owners decided. There were no roads either, just a track down to the Camp then winding paths between dwellings. A few sturdier chimneys still stand….

….elsewhere iron and rubble from buildings has been pushed over the side, left to weather and eventually rot away or be overtaken by the slowly encroaching bush. I spoke to a old-timer who was manning the information kiosk where ‘The Denniston Experience’ tours depart from. He told me that all the management houses and camp buildings were demolished when the Incline was closed because they were worried that squatters (or his words, ‘a commune of hippies’) would set up camp in the empty buildings.

The track eventually led to the Banbury Arches; a dry stone wall bridge and tramway that carried coal from the Banbury Mine (1879-1890) to the Incline. This mine was one of the first mines to open on the plateau but after a few years it was used as an access tunnel to the bigger mines behind it, bringing their coal through the mine and on to the Incline.

The Banbury Mine entrance (the dark patch) can be seen just to the left and above the smaller arch. In the early days horses were used to haul the tubs of coal to the Incline, nowadays the Denniston Experience tour uses the mine & tramway for their small rail carriages, taking people into the mine on a ‘real miner’ experience. Originally the mine was only 1 metre high, it has now been increased to 2 metres. Which is just as well, as I’m sure there would have been many suffering from claustrophobia.

We wander back along the track and end up on the Rope Road. A surface rope road was built in 1904 to haul the coal from the distant mines, it replaced a steam driven overhead chain which in turn had replaced the horses (remember to click on the photos if you’d like to read the information boards)

If you are a fan of the ‘Denniston Rose’, the fictional novel written by Jenny Pattrick, or her sequel ‘Heart of Coal’, about life on Denniston Plateau, you can follow the Denniston Rose trail which contains 17 numbered stops for key events in the books. Look out for the rose & coal symbols along the way. You can download a free “Denniston Rose’ app (iphone only) that will talk you through the tour or collect a Denniston Rose Trail booklet ($2 from the information Kiosk at the entrance- not always open)

The chimney in the photo below belonged to the smoko shed and it was here the men (& boys) working nearby used to warm their hands on cold winter mornings. We’re approaching the level above the Incline where the rope road haulage engine was located. The engine pulled the rope that hauled the coal tubs from the distant mines of Burnetts Face.

Boys as young as 14 started their working lives here at the clipping shed, clipping and unclipping the tubs of coal to and from the endless rope.

We come to the end of our walking tour and find a table near the motorhome parking area, overlooking the Incline and that fabulous view, to have lunch. We’re joined by a small party on a cycling tour of New Zealand. That's my idea of a cycling tour; they cycle small sections of the journey- the interesting bits- then the bikes and passengers are carted up and/or through any difficult parts. This group were about to ride the Denniston Plateau road- down, all the way!

After lunch we drove further on into the plateau to the old Burnetts Face, passing old historic mining sites along the way. There were a number of townships along this road; Denniston, Burnetts Face, Coalbrookdale & Marshvale (also known as Pommy Town). Burnetts Face School was located near the DOC sign in the photo, bottom left. Now it's just barren rock and scrub.

Then it was back down the winding road with the perfect view out over Westport with Cape Fourwind behind. I can even pick out the NZMCA Park on the beach- the white speck in that second curve of the first bay.

Once at the bottom we make our way to Conn’s Creek to look at the Incline from the bottom of the bluff….

…along with more mining relics. Located around the plateau and down the road are a number of signs from the ‘Friends of the Hill’ museum, showing where houses were built and information about some of the people that settled on the plateau.

Here’s an extract from the Denniston Rose, about Mary's first encounter with the Incline-

‘A grey mist lies over the bush. The wagons appear out of it, ascending and descending eerily. Mary climbs aboard willingly enough….But as the wretched jerking thing rises she loses her balance and tumbles backwards, with the twins, several bundles and the bed-head on top of her. For a moment she fears she she will fall out and screams aloud as the jagged ends of cut branches tear past, a nose-breadth away’

I climbed up the first short section to where the creek crosses underneath and where part of the Incline had been washed away.

Our final stop was out near the mouth of the Waimangaroa River, at the Waimangaroa Cemetery. The cutting of the Incline shows clearly from a distance. I hope they always keep the line clear, it would be a shame to loose the impact of the cutting to the regenerating bush.

The rock on the plateau was too hard for digging graves, many of the people that lived and died on the plateau are buried here. In the early days the coffins with their precious cargo were sent down the Incline, the only way to get them to the bottom.

In the shadow of the Incline.

Often the loved ones could not be at the burial or visit afterwards. After their initial ride up the Incline, they had a fear of riding it again. Many never left the Plateau alive again.

The final resting place for many of Dennistons’ brave & hardy residents, overlooking the West Coast’s wild Tasman Sea, although on this day it’s calm and serene.

The Department of Conservation, with the help of many volunteers & workers has done an amazing job in restoring and bringing alive the Denniston Plateau, and in particular the Denniston Incline, what a wonderful tribute to the men & women who eked out a living and survived the harshest mine site in the country.