Bannockburn
On the way back from the Nevis we called in to visit some of the old gold mining remains at Bannockburn. They sluiced for gold here and in a big way in the 1860’s. It looked like river gravels built up along with clay and gold filtered its way down, settling on bands of clay so the miners washed away the gravels and clay to extract the gold. One wonders where the gold came from? Was it up high on the Nevis? How much gold is still there? In the 1890’s the miners arranged a cricket match between the men and women which the women won by 55 runs due to the ‘deadly bowling of Misses’ Crombie and Hancock’. I wonder if there were any underarm tactics played or displayed? No doubt a good reason, if they needed one, for the men to drown their sorrows after the match. The area is now a reserve with walking tracks here and there. I walked up to the top and had a good view of all the workings of years ago. Weeds and thyme covered a lot of the old workings but I did come across a number of greenish coloured beetles feeding on some plants.

Beetle covering.

Cromwell

Fruit bowl of Cromwell.

Known as the fruit bowl but nowadays it’s more like the wine barrel. They do still have fruits though as recently they had a Cherry spitting contest. The winner this year was able to spit a cherry out to just over ten metres. They flooded the old part of Cromwell when they built the Clyde dam to form Lake Dunstan so they built a new town centre. It’s okay but the layout with its pedestrian only little streets just doesn’t look or seem to feel natural. I’m sure the public toilets would be the most ‘popular’ frequented building. They are quite good though. There was no free wifi in Cromwell either (except for a supermarket). Goodness, is that the thing nowadays – judging a town by their toilets and free wifi? We stayed one night at the Motor-van Association camp ground near the lake. The area seemed to have a rabbit proof fence surrounding it and from early evening rabbits appeared all around. Maybe the area was rabbit fenced for them to keep the grass down? But it was more like a breeding area to infest other places in reality. The next morning when having breakfast, I spotted eight rabbits from one window.

Old Cromwell.

Franktic-on 
On to the bustle of Queenstown or should say Frankton where we stocked up with supplies at one of the supermarkets near the airport. Frantic perhaps would be a better description as road works added to the confusion no doubt. Maybe Franktic-on would be a better name for Frankton. Even the parking spaces seemed closer. New houses and building going up where once were just paddocks made me a little apprehensive driving about. Watched an aeroplane take off and another descend. Passengers must feel either worried or excited during landing or taking off with the mountains so close by on either side. It was good to get on the road along the lakeside to Kingston where we called in to inspect the old rusting Kingston Flyer train but sadly all forlorn and weeds. What a shame they can’t make a go of this. Further on we passed the inevitable cycle trails with one crossing the famed trout fishing river the Mataura, with a comprehensive cable hung swing bridge. Through Lumsden and on to Te Anau for the night at another Motor-van Ass. Park. That night it was extremely windy with the wind gusts rocking the camper van wildly. So much so that I was thinking that I should maybe doing what the yachties do and lean out into the wind to stop the van from tipping over! Thunder, lightning and rain added to the atmosphere of the rough night. Thankfully the wind had died out by the next morning but the nearby mountains had some fresh snow on them.

Bullock Creek Hut.

Bullock Creek Hut
After the Te Anau visit we headed for the Mavora Lakes under dark clouds and scattered rain. At the lakes there were plenty of DOC signs: Keep off, no this and no that so the place must be popular during holidays. Even with the wet weather there were a number of fisher people about with one chap from Tokyo who has been coming out each year for 18 years for the trout fishing. On a little to Bullock Creek Hut, Eyre Mountains, Mt Nicholas Station for the night. We parked up just below the restored old timber slab hut. We were to meet up with some others and then take a helicopter flight up the mountain and walk back down, viewing the country side but in particular, looking

Red tussock near Lake Mavora.

for any flowering alpine plants. Alas it was not to be as overnight fresh snow fell up high covering what we wished to see so the flight was cancelled. Nevertheless, three of the party walked off the next morning with packs to stay up high for a night. It would have been very cold.

West Dome Visit
We travelled back to Mossburn and met up with some other people of the party at a cafe before heading up towards West Dome. I parked the campervan and hitched a ride with one of the others up along a rough forestry road, through pines and then some native bush until finally we parked the vehicles and then walked up along a ridge. Through patches of scrub and then we came across lots of clumps of Mysotis plus other alpines in flower although they seemed to have been a bit knocked about by the weather. Back down to Mossburn and to Cromwell for the night after being invited to join the group for a ride up on the Dunstan Range towards Old Man Rock the next day.

Mt Dunstan looking down on Lake Dunstan.

The Dunstan Range
I didn’t want to miss this trip so rose and took off from the camping area in the early morning light, to the foot of the Dunstan Mountains. I had breakfast while waiting by the locked gate. The road was quite steep and wound its way up and up through sparsely vegetated country. Green patches showed where there might have been some moisture but the higher we went the more rockier it became. It looked quite barren and what the sheep ate, I don’t know. To me, this country shouldn’t have any animals on it at all. Make it a park and just let the native flowers grow. The alpine flowerists, perhaps a good name for my companions, seemed to be only interested in any native flowering plant so when anything looked like it, the vehicles stopped, people rushed out to

Dustan tops.

have a look, take some close-up photos then back into the cars again. As we climbed higher, we passed some interesting rock formations and I would have liked to explore around them for a while. There were a number of alpine plants in flower though which was good to see and I have forgotten their names already. It would have been good to spend a night or two and to explore further along the range but back to the Cromwell camp for the night.

The Run Back Home

Up early the next morning and drove down to the old part of Cromwell or the part that was left after the dam was filled. From what I can remember, just one side of the street remains but these buildings have been maintained and now house retail shops. Behind them old stables have been restored and display all sorts of horse gear of old times.

Onward over the Lindus Pass, through Omarama and Geraldine to Ealing for the night. At Ealing it was another Mo-vanner Association Park which looked as if it had been an old school ground. Another country school closed down? Breakfast the next morning was somewhere around Ashburton and then to home.

Dunstan tops.

The Changing Landscape

Irrigation McKenzie Country.

It is saddening to see the land being purposely degraded in Central Otago through to Canterbury – and for what? I guess one could say the early settlers did the same but surely we have learn’t from that? One can easily see where the circular moving irrigation machines have been. Large circles of green grass adjoin each other while the surrounding vegetation is in its natural brown while road bridges cross beds of stones and rock where once streams and rivers flowed all year – a sorry sight.

The huge irrigation machines practically litter the landscape. Once we measured the length of one and it was one kilometre long so it doesn’t take much to guess where the streams have gone. It’s been said that it takes about 1000 litres of water to produce 1 litre of milk. At the Supermarket I note that the price for 1 litre of water is around $1.50. and milk for around $3.00. One would think it would be better to just sell the water for a greater profit and then we keep our natural landscape? Instead of destroying the natural landscape to produce more food for the world’s rapidly growing population, why not restrict the population? It seems that a lot of the farms are now owned by foreigners, companies or banks. With the banks having farmers working for them – that is working to pay all the borrowed money back. Is this what they call investing in our country? For them certainly but not for us – that’s another word like exploitation?

Bullock Creek Hut crafted door handle.

I passed a house nearby the road somewhere in Canterbury. An irrigation machine swung around and rested parallel with the road. What about the house? Well, on each side of the house mounds had been built up so that the wheels of the irrigation machine could ride up and over the house. It looked a bit quirky but really it seemed to me a sort of insult to the people living in the house. Get out of the way or we’ll just ride over you says the machine. I suppose the house gets a shower of water every time the machine swings around and over. One would have to time any drying of household washing to suit the swing of the thing.

Apparently tourism is our biggest export earner now and a news items recently noted that we had three million tourists visit last year. That number is a bit scary when you consider that our ‘normal’ population is less than five million. And they want to increase the number of tourists by another million or so?

Somewhere along the track we have taken a wrong turn I think.