On a rather nasty day weather wise, a visit to Gore's Hokanui Museum was most enlightening. With rain drumming on the roof we read how our Scotts forebears came to this country well prepared to make their traditional brew - whisky. However they hadn't anticipated the strength of the Temperence movement which eventually lead to Prohibition in Southland. The Scotts loved a drop, (and at 60% proof it was powerful stuff), so their stills were secreted away in the hills and a healthy trade in whiskey was established via the black market. The Police caught a few but they couldn't stop it, which is not surprising. Some did quite well. If any of the information in this 1577 advertisement promoting the virtues of alcohol is true, whiskey is amazingly good for your health.

This home made still was brought to NZ from Scotland.

The Edendale 'Crankup' this weekend is a traditional affair, celebrating vintage cars, tractors and country life in general. Hundreds of old tractors blew clouds of smoke and beautiful vintage cars had been shone up for the big day.

There were demonstrations of sheep shearing and dog trails too.

We have moved on to Invercargill. What we do next depends on the weather.

We arrived in Gore yesterday after a 150 kilometer drive southward from Dunedin where we'd had a week of absolutely awful weather. Dire even for here. There's been a few days stuck in the van with rain belting outside and gusts of wind rocking us. It got down to 11 degrees one day. My answer to being cold is to put another layer on and cook something in the oven. That warms the van pretty quickly. We did enjoy Dunedin in spite of the weather. The city is so full of Scottish character with its stone buildings constructed over 100 years and more ago. I decided Dunedin is a lot like Christchurch used to be before tourism and earthquakes, though I'm not quite sure why because the square is octagonal and it is not at all flat! The statue of Robbie Burns still has pride of place in the center. I was amazed that he was only 36 when he died having written all that poetry. There have been some articles in the Otago Daily Times bemoaning the fact that with its population of 127,000, Dunedin has slipped to 6th place for city size in NZ, behind Tauranga (5th) and Hamilton (4th). The city is growing at a slower rate than others and there is a move to attract more people, however others would prefer the city to stay the size it is and we certainly like it. It is not overly busy with traffic, there are lots of young people (and uni isn't even back yet), and plenty of great bars and cafes tucked away inside the lovely old buildings. The shopping is good too. We enjoyed the museums, both the science museum, and the Settlers. At the science museum Warren insisted on taking me to the planetarium for my education. It scares me to realise how small and unimportant we are among of all those stars, planets and galaxies. I especially loved the Settlers Museum. My Scottish forebears came to this area in the 1870s, so I am very interested in what their lives might have been like back then. Not so long ago really. There are diaramas and models which bring it all to life. We also managed to see a couple of movies to while away some wet afternoons, which was a treat. 

Yesterday we made the most of a reasonably decent day to drive 150k to Gore. We had a lovely late afternoon walk and pleasant evening before the next front arrived in the early hours of this morning. As predicted, today it is blowing a gale. We're parked in the Gore A and P showgrounds which are very nice and we'll just wait it out with a few other campers. A bit of rock n roll in the van won't hurt us but I do wonder how some the travellers in their tents and small hired vans are getting along.

Warren was very excited to see the Creamota Factory in Gore, a monument to his favourite food, porridge, and his Scots ancestry.

Lake Wanaka, Alexandra, Roxborough and Dunedin

Wanaka is a pretty town by the shores of Lake Wanaka, with awesome views out to the mountains. It is a popular place for tourists and holiday makers at this time of year. Though new housing is under construction, I believe the number permanent residents is still quite low. A couple of hours and a cup of coffee there was enough for us.

We moved to Lake Dunstan, a man made lake  created by damming the Clutha River at Clyde and Roxbourgh. Here a local orchardist was giving away two trailer loads of cherries which weren't up to export standards. We soon filled bags and bowls with beautiful plump fruit as large as small plums, taking as many as we could eat and froze some too. Yumm! At the small town of Cromwell nearby, we did some shopping at the Salvation Army store for secondhand books and some lighter tops for me. It is so hot and dry here, as well as being extremely windy. The Nor' Wester is a legend in this part of the country, a warm dry wind which built up to hurricane speeds one afternoon.

Half an hour along the road is Alexandra, a fair sized town on the banks of the mighty Clutha River, with a great parking area for self-contained motor homes and caravans. This one was free of charge. The NZMCA (New Zealand Motor Caravan Association) is the best club we have ever belonged to. The club owns or leases motor home parking sites all around the country, which charge members a minimal amount to stay. Some have water, rubbish and dumping facilities and others don't, but the best part is that it the parks are affordable and we always feel safe with other friendly motor homers. Vehicles must be completely self contained and the club is not open to hired campers, but visitors to NZ who own their own van can be members, which I think would be very helpful.

The Otago Rail Trailhttp://www.otagocentralrailtrail.co.nz/   




We are not very intrepid cyclists but Warren was keen to do part of this 152 kilometer long trail which runs from Clyde to Middlemarch. The Otago Rail Trail opened in 2000 and is one of NZ's original cycling routes. We hired one bike from the Altitude cycle shop in Alexandra (my old banger is a bit ordinary), and drove us the 45 kilometers to a rural spot called Auripo so we could cycle the easy way - downhill! In our defense it was only a slight downward gradient most of the way and we had to push into a strong head wind too. 47 kilometers was a long way for me and I worried that I wouldn't manage it, but when Phil, our driver, told me children have done it and some very old folk including a 90 year old, I had no choice but to stop winging and get on my bike. In reality my anxiety was unfounded. It was an easy enough route which I handled well.

Being in these wide open valleys surrounded by dry hills dotted with weird black  pancake shaped rocks was awesome. The beer at Chatto Creek Tavern was welcome too.

There are only a few wild flowers growing, but the hills are covered in low growing wild thyme, apparently planted by the pioneers who needed it to flavour rotting meat. No refrigeration then!

I was so tired after our ride that I thought I couldn't manage and eight kilometer bike ride to Clyde the next day, so we took the truck. Clyde is one of the original gold mining towns in Central Otago. Old stone houses, shops and pubs have been refurbished and there are several good eateries and cafes.

 These small towns have been built on the banks of the powerful and fast flowing Clutha River, New Zealand's longest river, which is fed by lakes Hawea and Wanaka.

The Clyde Post Office

A short drive from Clyde took us to the Clyde Dam, the site of a massive electricity generator which supplies Dunedin and Christchurch and parts of the North Island too. This is NZ's  biggest concrete dam, an impressive sight.


From Alex we moved on to Roxborough, a small village where we visited an elderly relative, cycling 5.5.kilometers along the lovely 'Gold Trail,' which runs beside the river. She loves it here and I can now understand why. Central Otago has a micro climate unlike anywhere else in the country. It boasts both the hottest and the coldest temperatures in the county, so is usually reliably warm and dry in summer, and crisp in winter with amazing mountain views.

The hills slowly changed from golden straw to green during the 150 km trip from Roxborough to Dunedin, the country's southern most city, and the weather forecast is for rain. Time to enjoy some city life, shops museums and to catch up on some minor repairs. Perhaps some movies are in order.

To Wanaka

BLOGPOST JAN 7 2017

It is quite delightful how friendly and helpful NZMCA members are, especially the men. I love how they gather together to nut out any mechanical problem. The club is sometimes a bit like a travelling men’s shed. After the torrential downpour in Hokitika on New Year’s Eve our gas-powered fridge decided not to function, although it hadn’t given us any trouble before. Some of the guys came over to help solve the puzzle. After many puzzled frowns and several unsuccessful attempts to get it going, we were ready to buy a bag of ice to keep our food cool until we could get professional help, when one of the local members came across for a look. He pulled out a plug and put it back in, and hey presto our fridge works again!

Franz Joseph is a touristy alpine village these days, sporting a variety of bars, restaurants and the usual assortment of shops selling souvenirs. We arrived in sunshine and sat outside the van baring our skins for a dose of vitamen D for 15 minutes or so when the dark clouds moved in. Before long it was raining heavily. Well they did say we are in rain forest. 

Flights over the glaciers are a huge draw card here and are probably worth the price. There are several different options which I wished we could afford, but we were happy with our walk to the glacier. The signage calls it a one-and-a-half hour walk, but it took us more than two by the time we read all the information boards and sat on the rocks to gaze in awe. This is my own country but I was impressed and can now understand why the tourists come. Though the glacier has receded back like the head of a balding man from where it was only twenty years ago, is still a wonderful sight. Not only that, the whole river valley is an amazing environment to experience, with almost vertical rock faces scoured out by glaciers, leaving a wide river bed with a snow fed river rushing along in several streams. We were lucky with a fine day and blue sky. The helicopters and small planes buzzing overhead as they flew tourists over the glaciers weren’t too distracting. 

Our lives are dictated by the weather these days, which makes a change from jobs and traffic. We would have stayed in Franz Joseph longer to do one or two of the other walks, but rain was predicted (no surprise there), so we decided to move on to Haast before it totally deteriorated. Even so we ended up driving though moderately heavy rain, but Warren, in his inimitable style, managed our big rig over some bloody big hills so well. I have to say, I have never been scared as the co-pilot, which is something for a nervous traveler.

The journey from Franz Joseph to Haast was a jaw dropping one in spite of the rain. I found myself gazing into the treetops, (never mind paying for a tree top walk), where the variety of natives is astounding. Big totara, many varieties of beech with their black bark and small light green leaves, huge matai, miro, rimu and kahikatea  (NZ white pine, our tallest and the most ancient of our native trees). Here there are no kauri and few pohutakawa (NZ’s Christmas tree), both North Island natives, but the hills bear the pink blush of the Southern Rata, a shyer relative.

It was exciting to drive from the West Coast to the East, through the Southern Alps via Haast Pass, the most southern of the three passes through the alps. These mountains were created eons ago when the earth was squeezed between two of the earth’s tectonic plates and apparently they are still growing. As a child in Christchurch, I was taken on holidays to the West Coast, but I don't remember much about that and this part of the country is all new to me. Once again, I was spell bound. This place is so beautiful! Big mountains and deep valleys, native bush, gushing shingly rivers with a winding road and many one way bridges. Totally my cup of tea. We parked behind the very modern Hawea Hotel with its views over Lake Hawea, which is almost as large as Lake Wanaka but less well known. It is time for a break from cooking, with dinner at the hotel restaurant.

This morning we drove the short distance to Albertown and are now safely tucked up behind another pub. Pubs are often kind to motor homers

All we need to do is have a couple of drinks at the bar which keeps everyone happy.

We tried out one of the many fabulous cycling tracks around here. This one is along the Clutha River.

After leaving Karamea we moved on to Granity (where there are very nice vege pies to be had). The weather had deteriorated so we free camped the night beside the Granity community centre, ready to do the Charming Creek Walkway next day. The morning dawned bright and clear and the two hour return walk was as charming as promised. Beautiful native bush, the history of coal mining to be observed in the remains of the old rail way which had to be blasted from sheer rock faces, a tunnel and swing bridge. That night we parked beside the Fox River with just one other bus. We had noticed a small marquee in the property next door and were informed that an event was planned that evening! A fire was lit and guests started to arrive. The party was revving up about 10pm so we thought we went over for a look. It was fun and we met all sorts of people there.

It is so long since I was last in Hokitika, it seems as if it must have been in a previous incarnation, which in a way it was. 1970 on my first honeymoon back when I knew it all! Things have changed since tourism found the place, that's for sure, but the history never does and overseas visitors have inspired councils and communities to make something of it. The history walk around Hokitika is interesting  although I was sad that the museum was closed due to earthquake strengthening. Men keen to dig for gold began arriving in the 1860s. Hokitika must have been a rip roaring place back then with over 70 pubs! The conditions were harsh and the few who found gold kept quiet about it but Hokitika must have been a colourful place. Eleanor Catton's 2013 Booker prize winning novel 'the Luminaries' was set here. These days Hokitika is a pleasant beachside town with wide streets, nice cafes and the usual fare of tourist shops. It is also characterised by exciting and changeable weather.

 Hokitika Gorge is 33 kilometers east of Hokitika. The 15 minute gorge track is well developed with board walks to a swing bridge. (I hate those things especially when others make them bounce), but the walk is truly rewarding. I could not have anticipated the intensity of the turquoise of the river water, apparently due to suspended glacier ground 'rock flour.' If you are thinking of going my advice is to get there early. We arrived about 11am and could barely find a park. We shared our walk with groups of Chinese, Germans and English people. All very nice I'm sure but peace and quiet are preferable. Yesterday we drove 25 kilometers south to Lake Mahinipua and the small township of Ross, where again, the gold rush brought hundreds of men and their families to these remote areas.