Thursday 6 March 2025

It’s around 11.00 am when we leave our place at Queensberry, near Wanaka.

Right now it’s really dry with a contrast between the green irrigated paddocks and the almost white unirrigated ones. The hills are bare and almost black in places. We cross Lake Dunstan at Cromwell, stopping to look at the still waters where the Karawau river runs into the lake. Under the water there still exists a bridge, which crossed the Clutha river before the Clyde dam was built in the 1980’s. Prior to that we could stand on the bridge and watch the blue water from the Clutha river and the green water of the Karawau river merge.

We head down along the east side of the lake with its well patronised cycle trail on the west side. The town of Clyde is situated just below the dam, supporting the local orchards, vineyards and farmers. Next town is Alexandra, where the Clutha river flows into lake Roxburgh. The country here is very stony and dry with the weathered rocks standing out like statues in places.

We pass the memorial to the gold miners, many who perished in the harsh winters of the mid-late 1800’s. Here one can see the remains of some of the stone walls built as houses under the rock overhangs.

Arriving in the town of Roxbrough we stopped for lunch at 103 The Store, with its fine selection of food and goods, from cushions to handbags. From there we followed the Clutha river down through Dumbarton, Ettrick, Millers Flat, and Rae’s Junction to Beaumont. As a child we lived for a few years near here in Kelso, and often used to come up through here as it was, and still is, one of the fruit bowls of NZ. Mother would buy lots of fruit and preserve it.

There was talk of building another dam at Beaumont and six small ones above lake Dunstan but a left-leaning government in the 80’s put a stop to that. Pity, as had those gone ahead we would have had plenty of power well into this century.

Back in the 1960’s and 70’s New Zealand used to have around 60-million sheep and the hills in these areas would be covered in large mobs of the woolly creatures. Now, with the population of sheep down to about 23-million, a lot of the farming country is being turned into pine forests as wool and meat prices are really low. The farmers are instead getting income from the carbon credits for the tree planting.

As we arrived in Lawrence, we stopped at a house with a large, well-maintained, blue wagon in the garden. Here, at 86-years old, lives a hell of a nice bloke called Ernie. He and two of his brothers, Gordon and Norman, used to come up to the farm that we lived on in the mid-50’s and help out with the fencing and shearing. We were welcomed in for a cup of tea and a catch up. Ernie’s wife had passed away a couple of years ago but he still keeps the place immaculate, just like I remembered it from 10-years ago. He took us on a tour, showing off a fine collection of dolls and prams that his wife had collected and he had restored, then onto another room with a collection of bottles, shearing hand pieces and possum traps.

We continued on our journey, passing through Waitahuna, Milton and Lake Waihola, finally taking the motorway into Dunedin. We headed to the railway station, which was built between 1903 and 1906. The line down here was justified at the time on the expectation that by 1950 New Zealand would have a population of 15 million. Boy did the experts get that wrong as we have only just made it to 5 million. The recently restored station is a stunning building, made from local stone with beautiful gardens out the front. The Taieri Express was parked alongside the platform. This train in the early days used to run through to Cromwell and was our only transport when we lived at Mt John Station (in the mid-50’s). Even the wool was taken down a steep track on the hillside, on sleds, and loaded onto the train to go to the market. Today the train takes tourists through the gorge, stopping at Pukerangi.

We checked into the Fable Hotel and enjoyed dinner at the local Speights Ale House.

 

Friday 7 March 2025

After a hearty breakfast we headed north, in the rain, on State Highway One, through Dunedin and up onto the Kilmog. Here too, what was once farmland is now pine trees. We arrived at the Moeraki Tavern to meet Stuart and Adair, who had flown down from Auckland for this, what has become an annual, event. Stuart and I had attended Timaru Boy’s high school together in the late 60’s. The event started as a reunion for Adair and her friends that attended Waitaki Girl’s High school and has been expanded to include more of Stuart’s friends, with over 30 people attending. Carol, who went to Waitaki Girls with Adair, had also attended Maheno Primary School with me, when I started there in 1958. We enjoyed great service and a delicious blue cod meal while we were catching up. People had come from Wyoming, Queensland, Auckland, Palmerston North, Tekapo and various other parts of the South Island.

At about 2pm we started the journey home as we had to pick up Moss (the dog) from the kennel before 5:30pm. We headed back to Palmerston, then turned off, taking the pig route through Dunback, another place where we used to live, and up into the Maniototo, where the weather finally cleared. This area is still mainly sheep farming country. We stopped at the Oturehua General Store for an ice cream. This store is more of a museum than a store, still having the local telephone exchange on display, along with various other nicknacks from the early 1900s.

 

We were back onto the rolling, rocky country, eventually linking up highway 8 again for the last section home through Clyde and Cromwell.