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I took off from Greymouth on Sunday 15^th March to get as far as I could for the day up over and beyond the Lewis Pass via Murchison. I made Murchison for lunch which was at the Rivers Café rather than —–

—– the Panda Express Supermarket and Food Court which specifically targets the bus loads of Chinese tourists passing through to the West Coast.

I headed south from Murchison 11km to divert east onto SH65 at the Upper Buller River bridge junction with SH6 ——-

—— and joined a continuous flow of traffic up over the Lewis Pass heading presumably for Christchurch.

As it was still a bright and sunny early afternoon I travelled through to the Hanmer Springs turnoff and set up for the night at the riverside freedom camping spot ready for an early morning visit 10km up to Hanmer Village. I came through Hanmer exactly 2 months back and found that the Heritage Forest Sculpture Trail was closed due to last October’s storm damage, so Monday 16^th March I revisited, and found the trail —–

—— OPEN with a note to —–

—– follow the “Dog” signs.

The first sculpture on the trail was these two squirrels who —–

—– looked down across the track —–

—– to the first of the devastation I encountered from tree fall.

Tree damage was extensive —–

—– with groups of fallen tree roots exposed ——

—— and one place where a line of fallen trees had come right across the trail.

It was interesting that most sculptures were —–

—– missed by the falling timbers, —–

—– with this dog quite unconcerned about the chaos around him.

In one location a large grove of trees had been uprooted, so heavy machinery was brought in to —–

—– harvest the logs and recover the timber, requiring a new walking track to be formed through the wreckage.

As I left the trail this unperturbed owl invited me —–

—– to look at the “near miss” he had survived.

From Hanmer I headed east to the Waiau Valley and at Waiau Village took the minor road through the Leader Valley and joined SH1 to Kaikoura at Parnassus.

On the way I found beginnings of autumn colours on the trees ——

—– as I looked back over the valley behind me, ——-

—– so I stopped to take this close-up of the trees in the centre left of the landscape view above.

At Kaikoura Tuesday morning 17^th March I drove around to the South Bay Recreation Reserve and did a 70 minute return walk on the Kaikoura Peninsula Track. The entrance has an arch depicting —–

—– Maui fishing up the South Island, and at the beginning of the walk a —–

—— sculpture of Maui in his canoe. The track edges steeply up the cliff face in the background behind the prow of the canoe, and my objective was the hill on the horizon to the left of the cabbage tree.

At the clifftop the view back to the parking area shows —–

—– what a fine day it was, and there was no wind – completely calm.

The track approached the base of the hill I was aiming for ——

—– via a bush section, after which I reached the hill ——

—— where there was a fenced off information board providing a background on the distant shearwater colony and breeding area —–

—— which is enclosed by a predator free fence. Their “flightpath” is to Australia. The breeding season begins in October and by autumn the fledglings are strong enough to accompany their parents to Australian waters for the winter. The parents return here the following spring to breed again, while the growing young will fly back after several years to begin their adult breeding life here.

So, as I hiked back down the cliff track to where I parked the van there were ——

—–kayakers enjoying sheltered channels between the offshore rocks.

My visit for Wednesday 18^thMarch was to the Kaikoura Caves located alongside SH1 about 4km south of the township. The caves were discovered in 1958 when quarry workers were blasting limestone rock from the cliffs to crush for agricultural lime, and after one blast a large hole appeared in the quarry floor. They could not see the bottom of the hole and after throwing flaming rags down through the opening they realised there was a large cavern below. On inspection they realised they would need to relocate quarry operations to avoid a potential collapse of the whole floor.

The abandoned quarry —–

—— is now vegetated over, with the original entrance to the cave (located under the green bush at the top of the path) now blocked off.

Early visitors to the cave climbed 10m down a rope ladder for many years until a new entrance ——

—–was constructed some 50m away to give direct entry to the cave floor. Our tour party of seven were led by Guide Jan who explained that this was the first season of opening to tours since the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake. It took 9 years to carry out restoration work following both the quake and the Covid years.

We climbed up past a large rubble pile —–

—– where part of the roof had collapsed during the quake, but surprisingly the cave features such as stalactites and stalagmites were unharmed by the damage.

There is no life in the cave such as insects, glow worms or bats, ——

——- but Jan recently had a hard job explaining to a foreign tour group that the fairy lights marking the walking track were not glow worms.

Fossils found in the cave limestone included a 6,000 year old set of penguin foot bones (now with Canterbury Museum) and —–

—– a 20 million year old sea urchin, shown here (the round object with a centre hole) below a current sea urchin brought in for comparison..

Stalactites and stalagmites were very small, —–

—– with mainly straw “tubular” stalactites dominating the walls and roof. These “straws” carry dissolved calcium carbonate down their hollow centre where the drop forming on the tip deposits a circle of limestone before the drop falls. It takes around 100 years to grow 2cm in length so Jan said many of the straws we were looking at were 1,000 years old.

There were several special features pointed out to us —–

—– including this “bacon slice” —–

—— and this grotto where blocked straws drip external dissolved carbonate to form thick stalagmites on the floor of the cave.

One unique geological feature was the fact that —–

—– throughout the limestone walls in the cave were circles of embedded flint (the black shapes above). This is the only site in NZ exhibiting “flint circles” in limestone with overseas locations few and far between (e.g. Norfolk in England and some places in Europe).

My final visits in Kaikoura occupied the morning of Thursday 19^th March before heading north to Kekerengu for lunch at The Store and then overnight camp at the beach.

First I drove up to —–

—– the Kaikoura Lookout on the peninsula where hazy conditions to the west affected the clarity of the view. Then it was down —–

—– to Fyffe House and the location of the original whaling station set up by Robert Fyfe in 1842. Yes, Robert’s surname was Fyfe, and the house transferred to his cousin George Fyffe (different spelling) in 1854 after Robert drowned during a voyage to Wellington which was hit by a Cook Strait storm.

Robert negotiated setting up whaling operations with local iwi on his arrival and soon had a flourishing business exporting whale oil to Britain. The left-hand section of Fyffe House was the original cooperage where —–

—– the oil barrels (sample here on the porch) were made.

The Southern Right Whale was the target of hunting as its oil was of exceptional quality and used for many purposes. This is why they were called the “right” whale. Half the body weight of these 70 tonne animals was fat and blubber which yielded up to 40 barrels of oil per whale. Eventually they were hunted almost to extinction and are rarely seen in local waters now due to the collapse of the population caused by whaling.

Whaling was a dangerous business with the usual practice being to lash two whaleboats together with the six-man crews on each boat holding tight as a harpooned whale towed them miles out to sea before it tired enough for them to dispatch it and float it back to shore

In 1868 George Fyffe sold the property to the Goodall family who with 8 children lived in it until 1920, then passing it on to the Low family (who also raised 8 children in the house) with the last surviving member, George Low, passing away in 1980. The Low descendants gifted the property to the NZ Historic Places Trust that year.

The Trust has kept the property in excellent condition ——

—— creating a cottage garden, ——

—– displaying the 1980s kitchen/dining room, but —–

—– leaving the original 1800’s wall coverings in the three upstairs bedrooms.

The grounds include —–

—– the boatshed (left), the house (centre) plus the Pou Tangaroa (right) —–

—– which recognises the first people to arrive in this area 900 years ago.

The dinghy in the boatshed —–

—– in the Fyffe grounds is much smaller than the whale boats and was used for fishing by George, the youngest member of the Low family

Heading north from Kaikoura after the Fyffe House visit I stopped briefly at Ohau Point —–

—— to check on the seal colony before heading to The Store at Kekerengu for lunch and setting up a camping spot —–

—– right on the beach for a restful night.

Friday 20^th March I woke to a —–

—— cloudy dawn and after breakfast took a 35 minute ——

—— beach walk as an early morning freight train headed south along the edge of the camping area. This beach ——

—— is also littered with driftwood as well as kelp, providing opportunity for their use in —–

—– beach art.

I stopped off at St Oswalds Church —–

—– on my way to Ward Beach as the restoration work undertaken after the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake appeared to now be completed. They were working on the parking area when I travelled past early January ——

—– but now the interior is available to visitors following re-opening in early February. The church was built in 1927 by the Murray family in an open field across the main highway from their farm home as a memorial to their son Charles who died in Geneva in 1924 at age 20.

The building has always been a feature standing on its own in the countryside alongside SH1 when heading south along the coast towards Kaikoura. It is great to now be able to see its interior 9 years after the quake and to view the large number of —–

—– stained glass windows (two of the many shown above).

The restoration work included installing stainless steel rods to tie down —–

—– the top of the outside walls to bolted plates anchored within new foundations (four visible here on this side of the building) together with straightening and repairing the stone walls and providing a new slate tile roof.

At Ward Beach I re-visited the Ward Boulders ——-

—— which you may recognise above from my visits in 2024 and 2025, —–

—– but this time I walked further along the beach and found a second group of boulders —–

—— as well as this “hole in a rock” feature.

Sunrise on Saturday 21st March was —–

—– more colourful than that at Kekerengu yesterday, but whereas when I was here in January the cray-fishermen were launching their boats at dawn with large bulldozers, there was no sign of fishermen, boats or bulldozers this time.

However, at the back of the hill behind the beach I looked beyond some trees to the three large storage sheds I had seen from past visits, and there —–

—– were the bulldozers (Billy and Eric seen here) with the ——

—– storage sheds hidden from the road, no doubt keeping the fishing boats safe and secure.

So Saturday saw me drive out from Ward Beach to SH1, with the ——

—– Coastal Pacific passing by as I headed for Picton where I will spend a relaxing couple of days ready for my return to the North Island on Tuesday.

This Post therefore concludes my weekly notes for these 2026 South Island travel experiences which were assisted immeasurably by Peter Janssen’s “Worth a Detour” to “370 hidden places and unusual destinations”.

I headed north from Haast Sunday morning 8^th March in steady rain where —–

—– in waiting to cross the Haast River one-way bridge I could just make out through the rain a tourist bus coming in the distance. Even at Bruce Bay alongside the —–

—— beach the visibility ahead was restricted by the continuing wet. Walks I had planned ahead from Haast were quite out of the question for the day, so I headed for Fox Glacier to await better weather for Monday and Tuesday.

The rain cleared Monday morning 9^th March, so I drove the few km out of Fox to the Glacier Walk carpark, crossing the Fox River via one of the —–

—— four long suspension bridges that cross major rivers on the Haast to Fox Glacier highway.

The 1 hour 3.2km walk to the main glacier viewing area is ——

—– a steady climb up the original road that was closed to traffic many years ago after a river washout (now bypassed by a steep bush track). The warm spring is indeed warm to the touch, and is a bit of an anomaly on the river side of the old road.

After 40 minutes uphill walking you come to the first viewpoint, —–

—– this one looking through the forest to the main body of the glacier. It is a further 20 minutes’ walk to the riverside viewpoints which are accessed down a bush track from ——

——- the old carpark where a bike stand is provided for cyclists.

There is a bend in the valley around which the Fox River carries glacier melt —–

—— towards the gravel bank in the foreground of this photo. The following three photos show views of —–

—— the lower ice flow area in close-up, ——

—— the upper glacier, and —–

—– the snow field where four tributary glaciers feed the top of the Fox. There appears to be a major crevasse splitting the top of the icefall into two sections so I went online later in the day and found this photo —–

—– taken on the upper section of the glacier looking down the valley. Accompanying this photo is a shot —–

—– inside the crevasse. Given that 4 individual glaciers form the top of Fox Glacier (Victoria, Explorer, Albert and Abel Janszoon) could it be that the crevasse forms where the Albert and Abel Jansoon meet?

Returning to Haast village after my 2¼ hour glacier view experience the afternoon brought cloud down the mountainsides with rain setting in for the evening.

Tuesday 10^th March dawned bright and sunny, so my first visit was to the Glacier View location some 10km west of the village down past the Lake Matheson access road. This location —–

—– provides a face-on view up the Fox Glacier, but at this early part of the day the glacier valley was still shaded by the mountains to the north and by clouds.

So I went in to Lake Matheson and took the track to the Jetty View location where loads of walkers were queuing to get photos of the reflections. I noted ——

—— groups of ducks on the Lake on the way in, so expected this would disturb photos from the Jetty, ——

—– but in fact the water was reasonably smooth when I arrived and thus managed to get this view ——

—– together with this one over the heads of other walkers.

It was not until I got back out to the Lake Matheson café for lunch that the cloud cleared enough to look up the glacier valley —–

—– to the Fox Glacier snow fields and to Mount Tasman further around to the south. The cloud cleared over Tasman only briefly, but there was enough time —–

—– to get this close-up.

Continuing north on SH6 on Wednesday 11^th March I decided to have my morning walk at Okarito wetland ——

—— which involves a boardwalk then a climb through the forest to —–

—– look back down on the boardwalk —–

—– and out across the Okarito lagoon (which was partly obscured by the early morning haze).

As I began crossing the wetland on the boardwalk I was impressed by the volume of bird-song I could hear from trees opposite me – many walks so far this trip were through silent forests. I soon found out why I was being treated to this new experience when I met and talked with a ranger and his rat detection dog coming towards me out of the forest onto the boardwalk.

He works for ZIP (Zero Invasive Predators NZ) which has expanded operations since setting up in 2018 to cover a huge area (107,000 hectares) of West Coast forest, rural and alpine areas eliminating rats, stoats and possums. In 8 years the rat and stoat populations have been eliminated using special dogs and remote sensing cameras to find specific locations where these predators are active. Special plastic traps are then placed at the detection spots. These traps have front and rear doors which shut tight when an animal enters and steps on a floor plate. The closed trap is then flooded with carbon dioxide from a canister to smother the creature. As for possums, he said they are the easiest to get rid of, and at this point in time there are only six uncaptured possums in the whole 107,000 hectare area. His work with his dog is to check that there are no predator incursions into the cleared area from surrounding forests.

I forgot to ask him if I could photo him and his dog after we talked —–

—– so took this shot across the wetland after he left me. The dog has a special wire cage muzzle, so he is not a “rat catcher” but a “rat sniffer”, and the traps are set at the point where he locates a rat hole or track.

I spent the afternoon and night at Lake Ianthe where I was able to use a 1 bar signal on the phone to book and pay for a space at the DoC campsite. My DoC 12 month Camping Pass ran out on Tuesday and given that the NZMCA discount no longer applies and DoC have increased their charges across all tracks, huts and campsites, the $165 I paid for this past year was a bargain compared to the new rate of $295/year (which I will not be purchasing).

The lake is a delightful spot for fishing ——

—– if you have a suitable boat, —–

—– or paddle boarding if you have a suitable board. This couple arrived by car from which they hauled two packs to the foreshore and began pumping up an inflatable paddle board —–

—– which they carried down to the water to —–

—— launch and enjoy a cruise out onto the lake. [Note that they have only one life jacket between them, and “guess” who is wearing it.]

Heading north on SH6 Thursday 12^th I called in at Kakapotahi Beach just before Ross, and found freedom camper families and couples having breakfast (with sand-flies) in the early morning sun. It was good —–

—– to see surf again, but like many west coast beaches there was timber litter everywhere —–

—– leading to the temptation for visitors to build these “wigwam” stacks.

After Ross I was “dying” for a hot drink as my gas bottle ran out this morning before I could “boil the billy” for breakfast, so it was a cold repast at 6.30am. Next up the road past Ross is the West Coast Tree Top Walk, so I popped in to its café for a flat white and a choc-cookie fix. Having done the walk twice (2024 and 2025) I gave it a miss this time and just took one telephoto view —–

—– to see if anyone was coming down the zip line. No zip line riders – only two early birds sightseeing from the top of the 110 step tower.

My morning destination was to check out the Hokitika Gorge walk.

In 2024 the smaller of the two suspension bridges (shown below as at 2024) on the Gorge loop walk was closed —-

—— as it had become dangerous. However, walkers could access the viewing rock in the background above via a return track over the larger suspension bridge away around the corner to the left of this photo.

Then in 2025 re-construction of the unsafe bridge was well under way (here viewed from as close as walkers were allowed on the closed section of the track) —–

—– with remnants of the old bridge hanging below the new deck.

And now in 2026 the completed new bridge ——

—– looks great, with —–

—– the re-opened full loop track allowing visitors on the new bridge to view the —–

—– blue water reflections both downstream and —–

—– upstream. In fact these “blue pools” on the Hokitika River were much more impressive than the Makaroa “Blue Pools” I visited last week.

At the edge of the forest there was a timber viewing platform —–

—– with steps (to the right) —-

—–down which a large group of young Chinese visitors took to the viewing rock. With them clambering up the rock for photo op’s I had to wait ages to get this up-river person-free view of the blue ice fed cold water.

It was then into Hokitika for lunch and to purchase a “Swap-and-Go” gas bottle, and head for the Top 10 Holiday Park in Greymouth.

It began raining Thursday night with showers and downpours continuing throughout Friday 13^th. This suited me well as I needed a maintenance day to get laundry and housework done.

Saturday 14^th March cleared to fine, so I did some local exploring. My first stop was the Brunner Mine Historic Area where from the carpark I could look down on —–

—– the railway suspension bridge that carried coal wagons across the Grey River to the main railway line. Going down to the line I was in time to see —–

—– the Trans Alpine heading into Greymouth for its lunchtime stopover.

After lunch I headed to the Pike River Mine Memorial near Slaty where at the Longburn Road turnoff to Pike River —–

—— there is a special memorial for the 29 miners who died on 19 November 2010 following the mine explosion. There is a —–

—— main memorial boulder with the names of all who died plus 29 other boulders, all sourced from the Pike Mine valley, being one for each man. Families have placed their own memorial plaques on individual boulders —–

—– with this one for Blair Sims surrounded by coloured stones expressing love from family members, and—–

—– this one for Dan Herk (Dan the Man) surrounded by empty beer cans and bottles, no doubt from his motor cycling friends who come here regularly to toast his memory.

I then headed 15km up the valley via Longburn Road and diverted onto the main mine access road ——

—— which was originally a “private access road” to the mine but now is the route into the Pike 29 Memorial Track which enters the Paparoa Forest at the Mine Portal.

The last 5km into the Mine Portal is a gravel road ending at ——

—– these locked gates through which the mine portal buildings could be seen from —–

—– the Memorial Track carpark where I was the only visitor this afternoon. The track entrance is via the arch on the left.

The memorial track was established by the Pike 29 families, DoC and local iwi and winds nearly 12km through the forest to link into the Paparoa Great Walk track. However, there was notice for a short 10 minute 500m walk to the Twin Bridges which I found to be a 15 minute heart-pumping climb —–

—– from the track entrance to ——

—– the first bridge, followed by a 10 minute knee-jarring descent back downhill to the carpark.

So, what was the deal re —–

—– the “private access” sign where the mine road headed away from Longburn Road?

It was supplemented by another sign 300m further on ——

——- which clearly supports the efforts by Pike 29 families to have police lay charges against mine management over responsibility for the disaster, as well as enter the mine and recover the bodies.

A really sobering visit today.

I left Te Anau Sunday morning 1^st March as rain began and travelled in continuous rainfall through Mossburn, Five Rivers and Athol to Garston where I stopped at —–

—– Garston Stables which stocks a huge range of furniture, furnishings, curios, sculptures and jewellery. The owners travel extensively around the world sourcing items to import back to Garston for sale via the internet. At 9.00am it was closed, but in the field behind was —–

—– this large recycled metal bull, listed on the Stables website for sale at $12,000.

At Kingston the Kingston Flyer —–

—– was being readied for the 10.30am trip 14km to Fairlight. I travelled in a restored —–

—– second class carriage at a slow and steady 20km, a speed limit imposed via the consent to operate. The 1927 engine No. 795 was built in the Dunedin Railway Workshops, and can in fact top 140km at speed. I last travelled in the Flyer 50 years ago with Calum and Lexie when it ran an afternoon trip Lumsden to Kingston return. That service ceased in 1979 after flood damage to the line at Garston, 6km from Fairlight.

At our turn-around at ——

—— Fairlight Station the museum and souvenir shop—–

—– contained the original “treasure” chest used in the filming of The Great Crunchie Train Robbery advertisement for Cadbury’s Crunchie Bar, 1975.

The station also features in the TVNZ promo ad where the large white ball with the coloured logo for TV 1 —–

—– rolls along the platform.

Before we left Fairlight Hostess Amanda offered —–

—– to take everyone’s photo in front of the engine.

Being the first carriage behind the engine on the way up we were last carriage at the back on return to Kingston, so I was able to —–

—– get photos out the back as we left Fairlight —–

—–and also take views of farmland and cuttings further down the track.

As we disembarked 12.30pm there was quite a crowd already waiting at Kingston Station for the 2.00pm trip

After lunch I headed through to Queenstown and the south edge of town on the Glenorchy road to visit the —–

—– One Mile Powerhouse (another “Worth a Detour” recommendation). This was one of those early local community schemes constructed around NZ in the 1920s, this one being completed in 1924.

It consisted, like others, —–

—– of a pelton wheel driving a generator, with water supplied from a dam high up the valley.

I drove on to Glenorchy at the head of Lake Wakatipu, with a —–

—– great view from the road across Pigeon and Pig Islands through to the Forbes Mountains and the headwaters of the Dart River.

My destination for the night was the DoC campsite at Kinloch, across the head of the lake from Glenorchy. It was blowing a gale when I arrived —–

—– with huge dust clouds sweeping off the gravel flats between the camping area and the lake edge where waves were crashing onto the shoreline some 200m out.

It was next morning (Monday 2^nd March) that I was able to compare the location —–

—– of the current wharf in front of the campsites with —–

—– this photo of the Earnslaw loading sheep from the same early wharf when the lake was deep right up to the camp edge.

My schedule for Monday was to head back to Glenorchy village over the —–

—– one lane bridge (of TV series fame), taking a view of it spanning —–

—–the Dart River.

The road continued into the Paradise Valley —–

—–where I got a good view of the dome of Mt Earnslaw —–

—– and to its right the mountain icefields which slope down to the Jura Glacier.

At Glenorchy the —-

—– wetlands and lagoons provided an opportunity for a 70 minute hike —-

—– with several quite long (but narrow) lengths of boardwalk which involved passing oncoming walkers by moving past each other sideways.

Leaving Glenorchy to head back to Queenstown provided an opportunity to see —–

—- the Railway Goods Shed used for storing cargo from the Earnslaw when it was part of the NZ Railways system after being launched in 1912.

The road back south crossed the 45^th parallel at —–

—— this special place recommended by Peter Janssen in “Worth a Detour”. The lodge and garden is a 41 year work of art by Thomas Schneider, a Swiss immigrant who —–

—– after travelling widely around the country settled here alongside the lake.

He invited me to look around the house and accommodation lodge he built (there is an entry fee) and explained how best to circulate the 700m walkway around the garden. I showed him my copy of “Worth a Detour” of which he had no knowledge of being an entry in the “370 hidden places” in the South Island.

The lodge is full of —–

—– polished slab timber furniture, with the quirkiest item in the residence being —–

—– the toilet cistern hidden behind a fish tank. The inscription above the flush button says “this cistern is a reminder that water is a living environment”.

The garden is quite magical, with a selection of locations and sculptures shown in the photos below.

Entrance gate.

Garden pathway.

Thatched house with mother and daughter sculpture in garden.

The last moa (with Haast Eagle and Maori hunter).

Flowers everywhere.

Teaching positive energy.

????? What is this about?

Ah – now we can see. [The backwards word partly hidden behind the left flax bushes in the first photo above is the mirror word “Reflection” with an arrow pointing up, so as to be pointing down in the pond water reflected view.]

And who else is in this pond? Yes, a well fed 3m (model) eel.

It was possible to get an overview of the whole garden from ——

—– this staircase tree, but I decided this was not for me.

There were several peahens and chicks as well as —–

——some shy peacocks,——

—— and this one happy to pose for me. There were signs on the main road passing the garden entrance warning of PEACOCKS.

So after over an hour exploring this lake-side gem of a place, it was on to Arrowtown for the next 3 nights.

Tuesday 3^rd March as autumn colours —–

—– were just beginning to show —–

—– I headed for Queenstown Patagonia —–

—– for a hot chocolate fix —–

—– to sustain me for the Skyline Gondola trip.

The cableway is —–

—– the steepest in the country —–

—– with expansive views over city, mountains and lake revealing themselves as you rise to the viewing and hospitality complex at the top of the ride. Luge rides, paragliding, and cycle tracks offer plenty of activity options for those more adventurous than me.

I was able to look down on —–

—– the Earnslaw returning from a Walter Peak journey and —-

—— circling into its berth to reload for the next trip.

There were many Luge riders passing —–

—– below the viewing platform, and —–

—– a continuous parade of paragliders sweeping by in front of us.

I could look down from above to the distant greenspace sports field in town —–

—– used as the landing area for paragliders, so when I got down from Skyline —–

—– I went over to watch this couple glide in to a —–

—– perfect stand-up landing.

Wednesday 4^th March, following the day’s chocolate fix, I headed for the —–

—— Steamer Wharf to await —–

—– the return of the Earnslaw from its early morning trip to Walter Peak to then take me (and a couple of hundred others) on the Gourmet BBQ lunch cruise

So it was off up the lake with the three decks crowded, including —–

—– the outside deck, —–

—– the café deck, plus the lounge deck below.

We could also step down to view the engine room from above —–

—– with its descriptive diagrams of how a steam engine works, and if lucky —-

—— watch the stoker feed coal into the four fire boxes.

Walter Peak homestead is now owned by tourist company Real NZ, and —–

—– the grand old building is a hospitality and events venue ——

—– with some of today’s wait staff waving a welcome to us as we berthed.

Diners in the three large dining areas ——

—– (this being one of them) —-

—– were treated to a sumptuous spread, including the range of BBQ meats shown here.

It was the “Farm Show” after lunch with —–

—– host Ashly first introducing us to her two heading dogs (you should have heard the mainly Chinese audience go “ooh” and “aah” at this display of affection from Mia), —–

—- then demonstrating the sheep shearing process.

There was loads more “oohing” and “aahing” as —–

—– a group of shorn sheep high on the hillside above us were herded down the slope to be —-

—– penned in front of the performance area.

So it was farewell to—–

—– the magnificent gardens of Walter Peak as we —–

—– boarded the Earnslaw for our trip back to Queenstown.

After checking out of the Arrowtown Holiday Park on Thursday morning 5^th March I parked close to the village and walked the main street —–

—– viewing its many historic buildings, such as the 1862 Pritchard building, established as a grocery business, now a chemist.

After my morning chocolate fix ——

—– at Arrowtown’s Patagonia I headed south to Cromwell, up past Lake Hawea and over the divide to Lake Wanaka, then travelled west through the Makaroa River Valley over the Haast Pass to Haast Junction and the Haast River Motels and Holiday Park.

As rain was forecast for the Haast area from early afternoon, Friday 6^th March, I set of 7.15am back over Haast Pass to the Blue Pools walkway to get a 55 minute walk in early. There were only 3 cars in the carpark when I arrived at 8.30, so had the walk pretty much to myself.

The walkway reaches the Blue Pools via —–

—— two suspension bridges with the second one (here above) —–

—– providing a great view up the Blue River Gorge where it enters the Makaroa River downstream of the first bridge.

The blue colour —–

—– is the result of light refraction on the clear, snow-fed, icy cold water.

There have not been many birds around during the walks I have been on this trip, but I was lucky to snap —–

—– this fluffy fantail on the bridge cable here at the Pools.

As I began the return journey to Haast, I took the Cameron Creek Lookout walk (25 minute return) and —–

—– was able to look back some 3km to the Blue Pools parking area which had accumulated loads of vehicles from the many people I met walking in as I walked out from the Pools.

I next tried a lookout walk at the top of Haast Pass, but after 5 minutes I turned around as the boulder filled track began a steep climb into the forest – it was not worth the risk. However, on the other side of the road was information regarding the original 1875 Bridle Track used by horsemen to carry supplies across the Haast from Otago to Westland.

I backtracked to the start of this track at Davis Flat —–

—– and took another 55 minute return walk, this alongside the Makaroa River —–

—– past the Makaroa Gorge then to the suspension bridge —–

—– where the Bridle Track crosses the smaller Fish River. The track, though flat at the start, had several steep up-grades and downhill sections, being slow going at times. By now, with a total of 2¼ hours walking under my belt for the morning, it was time for lunch back at the Davis Flat parking area.

As I began the 30 km drive back to Haast Junction at 1.00pm the rain set in, so no more walking today. Back to camp to catch up on some reading.

Saturday 7^th March was a total washout for outdoor activities. I had planned a trip to Jackson Bay taking in both the Hapuka Estuary walk on the road down, and the Ocean Beach walk at the Bay, with lunch at the Craypot on the foreshore. Intermittent rain overnight turned to steady continuous rain from mid-morning as I headed south so I abandoned the walks and headed into the Craypot 11.30 for an early lunch.

The Craypot —–

—– has, in my view, the best blue cod meal in the country. The nearby —–

—– harbour jetty was empty of fishing vessels, but these may well have been away out at sea as the onshore boat storage area was empty.

So after ending the week with a superb dining experience I headed back mid-afternoon to Haast Junction for another expected wet night.

Sunday 22^nd February was my visit to the Te Anau Bird Sanctuary where takahe, blue duck (whio whio), brown teal duck, kaka and parakeet were part of their breeding programme. Only takahe, brown teal duck and parakeet were in residence currently, —–

—– all very hard to photograph through —–

—– the close-knit mesh fences around their enclosures.

However, I managed to get a clear picture of the male and juvenile takahe —–

—– by holding the camera back from the mesh and shooting through the tight space with the telephoto function.

Not so much luck with the Antipodes Island parakeet (kakariki) —–

—– as it was rushing around its aviary taking a quick look at a visitor then dashing off again.

I headed up the Milford road on Monday 23^rd February to visit Lake Gunn and use the adjacent Cascade Creek DoC campsite as a base to visit Hollyford and Piopiotahi Milford Sound.

On the journey up the Eglington Valley, with its broad grassland flats, there are a couple of viewing areas where the Queenstown to Milford day-trip buses stop —–

—–to allow passengers to stretch their legs on a brief walk and take advantage of the photo opportunity.

The Lake Gunn Nature Walk features huge trees —–

—– with mosses climbing their trunks, —–

—– and when they fall moss growths take over completely.

In a couple of places —–

—– you can access the lake shoreline —–

—– and get a view north over the 3.25 km length of the lake, —–

—– then turn back south to view (in the left distance) the nearby lake outlet into the Eglington Valley.

The Cascades camp has 140 campervan/caravan/tent sites —–

—– with great views down the valley and out to the mountains. The camp sites fill up each night to almost full capacity as with very limited commercial campsites at Milford this is the main base for a day-return trip into Milford Sound for many motorhome and campervan travellers.

Next morning (Tuesday 24^th February) I travelled over the Divide into the Hollyford Valley and 8km down —–

—– to Gunn Camp which was devastated in February 2020 by a huge avalanche which swept down the mountain side onto the camp, triggered by 1,000mm of rain over 48 hours. Avalanche debris remains piled up (in this view) to the right of the main camp building. Since Murray passed away in 2014 the Camp has been operated by a Trust which has a sign —–

—– on a window about its future intentions.

Lexie and I visited Murray during our South Island travels over the years —–

—– with this photo taken during our January 1996 visit. Murray was a great character, and during a stoush with DoC over the number of horses he could keep at the camp he took a can of white paint and with a large brush —–

—– labelled the sides of the excess horses as COWs (above photo from 1989 visit).

A further 10km from the camp at the end of the narrow gravel Hollyford Road is the Humboldt Falls with a 15 to 20 minute climb up a steepish forest track to —–

—– a viewing platform.

The falls are some distance —–

—– across the valley with the view somewhat obscured by 30 years of tree growth —–

—– since Lexie’s and my first visit in January 1996.

On my way up and out of the Hollyford past Gunn Camp I stopped at Moraine Creek to view the Hollyford River. I walked on to the —–

—– suspension footbridge to —–

—– look upstream, and when I turned —–

—– I found this spider web ready, I hoped, to rid the world of some of the pesky sand-flies that become a real nuisance this time of year.

However, I have to admit that the worst sand-fly experience we had at Milford was the visit in January 1996, —–

—— but we were well equipped with head-nets.

My biggest day of the week (Wednesday 25^th February) was my Milford Sound Cruise. I left Cascade Creek 7.00am to head past the Hollyford Road junction —–

—– up the valley to —-

—– the Homer Tunnel —-

—– then down past Mount Tutoko ——

—– into Milford Sound and Mitre Peak.

There was a massive cruise ship —–

—– in the outer harbour area when I arrived, but fortunately —–

—– it took off up the Sound at 9.0am with hundreds of passengers on the viewing decks, and we soon had the scenery —–

—– back to ourselves.

The Milford Sound tourist cruises are 1½ hours compared to the Doubtful Sound 3 hours, but the —–

—– steep sided mountains  —–

—– and hanging valleys show much more of the past glacial action on the Milford fiord than we saw at the Doubtful fiord.

With limited recent rainfall some of the non-permanents falls, ——

—– such as these Pixie and Fairy Falls, had such a low flow they were almost blowing away in the wind.

Meanwhile at the permanent —–

—– Stirling Falls cruise boats —–

—– sail their bow right into the spray, it being said that taking the mist onto your face is healthily and spiritually invigorating.

So, with a last view —–

—– back up the Sound it was —–

—– into our harbour berth in time for lunch.

For the afternoon I took a trip down memory lane, visiting the only remaining —–

—– suspension bridge on the road down from the Homer Tunnel, now replaced by a steel truss bridge, but retained as an historical relic.

Sixty-seven years ago I led a technical team into the Milford Valley during winter when the road (including the Homer Tunnel) was closed due to avalanche risk. We stayed at Cascade Creek Lodge, long since gone following flood damage (and where today’s DoC campsites are), and drove daily through the tunnel (open to us as we were Ministry of Works staff in charge of the road) to the three suspension bridges on this section of road. We carefully parked a lorry loaded with cement bags along each section of the bridge deck while I used a special micrometer device to measure how far each steel hanger between cable and deck beam stretched. The fractions of a millimetre lengthening of each hanger as the truck parked by it could be used to calculate the overall weight the whole bridge could take before it failed, and then adopting a safety factor of 2, we could set the bridge’s tonnage rating at half this value. [Here endeth todays’ civil engineering lesson.]

Eventually the rise in tourism and resulting development at Milford involving much heavier traffic than these bridges were rated meant the three suspension bridge were replaced with steel girder bridges.

Wednesday night I stayed at the Milford Park Lodge in a motorhome site and dined at their top rated restaurant Pio Poi. The food was excellent, even worth the trip in without a boat trip up the Sound (of course I did both). 8.0pm when I got back to the van, rain started and became steady and heavy – still raining when I woke at 6.0am. This was going to be a good waterfall day.

When I left my campsite mid-morning Thursday 26^th February I travelled the 3km back to the harbour and the Visitor Terminal and found mist right down to water level, unable to see more than 100m out into the bay. No one on an early boat trip would see much, yet both the paid parking areas ($10 per hour) and the free parking areas (30 minute walk to the Terminal) were packed, with marshals in orange wet-weather gear directing traffic to overflow areas.

As I headed out buses were pouring in with their passengers probably wondering if they would see anything today. Actually rain is great at Milford both for road and boat travel as the dry weather scars down mountain slopes became thundering rushes of temporary waterfalls and cascades.

My first stop in the rain was at the historic suspension bridge where yesterday the view up-stream —–

—– was reasonably tranquil in the river’s dry weather state, while this morning —–

—– it was a torrent with adjacent —–

—– hills feeding the river with streaming cascades.

Even dry hillsides from yesterday were pouring with flows that established streams could not handle.

Here is The Chasm —–

—– yesterday —–

—– and today.

The hillsides up to the Homer Tunnel were shrouded in fog with only glimpses of cascading slopes, while inside the tunnel it was sheltered —–

—– with only the regular roof drips coming down onto the van.

Leaving the tunnel —–

—– via the avalanche shelter over the roadway ——-

—– I headed for the last tourist stop before the Hollyford Valley called The Falls. Here sight-seers are warned in Chinese and English to take care crossing the road to the viewing point behind me.

The Falls turned on —–

—– quite a show, even better —–

—– in thunderous closeup.

By the time I reached the Cascades DoC campsite 15km from The Falls the roads were dry and it seemed the overnight rain had stayed mainly on the west of the mountain ranges.

The trip into Te Anau Friday 27^th February was brilliantly sunny with two main stopping points.

First there was the Eglington Valley grasslands, one of —–

—– my favourite places on the Milford Road. Second was the Mirror Lakes where —–

—– conditions for reflections were the best I have ever encountered, —–

—– such as this close-up of the water surface (see left lower corner of the upper photo).

So, on to Tasman Holiday Park in Te Anau for some Saturday 28^th February relaxation before heading out to Queenstown on Sunday.

On Sunday 15^th February I travelled from Lake Hawea to Wanaka, and straight through town to Glendu Bay where there is probably the largest holiday park in NZ. I spent the afternoon parked north of the campground —–

—– on the picnicking beach where visitors were —–

—– relaxing, swimming and boating.

Monday 16^th February was dull and overcast, but this did not deter the continuous stream of visitors walking the shoreline to —–

—– photograph the Wanaka Lake Tree where signs about keeping off it were in both English and Mandarin. Of course there were exceptions, such as for —–

—– this pied shag preening himself after fishing.

The foreshore walkway has a range of art works including this —-

–

—— bronze statue looking out over the lake and watching the hordes heading along the beach to the Lake Tree.

On the road to Cromwell from Wanaka I called in at the Marsden Resort which consists of a series of town houses cantilevered over the water of an artificial inlet to Lake Dunstan, and where you park your car in a garage at the front of the townhouse, —–

—– and moor your run-about under the verandah at the rear.

Just down-lake from Marsden Resort is —–

—– the 45^th parallel which I last passed just north of Oamaru on the east coast. Here at this location is the underwater village of Lowburn (plus its bridge across the Clutha), both submerged when Lake Dunstan filled behind the Clyde Dam. The new Lowburn is a subdivision on the hillside above the lake

From Lowburn I passed —–

—– through Cromwell on my way to an overnight freedom camp at —–

—– Jacksons Bay on Lake Dunstan between Cromwell and Clyde.

Tuesday 17^th February took me first thing beyond Alexandra to Mitchells’ Cottage on the way to Roxburgh. DoC states that —–

—–this is “an outstanding example of 19^th century stone masonry”. It was built by John and Andrew Mitchell who emigrated from the Shetland Isles and together constructed many such cottages in the Clutha Valley. This one was completed 1904 and was lived in by John and his wife Jessie who raised 10 children in the two bedroom cottage.

It sits on a natural rock slab foundation —–

—– high up on the valley side —–

—– above the Clutha River orchards, —–

—– with the dwelling interior lined with superbly crafted tongue-and-grove joinery.

Of course I had to stop and get a photo of Roxburgh Hydro with its 8 turbines.

Constructed during the 1950’s we visited it every year in February to check on progress when as a family we travelled up to the orchards in the Roxburgh/Etrick/Millers Flat valley to get boxes of various fruits that we then preserved in jars for use through the rest of the year on the farm at Howe in the Waikaka Valley.

Roxburgh itself got electricity in 1924 when enterprising locals championed use of water harnessed for early gold mining to —–

—– build its own power scheme, Central Otago’s first. Today it is still operating under Pioneer Energy ownership.

The power station is on the north bank of the Clutha with this classic steel arch bridge providing road access —–

—– into Roxburgh Township on the south side of the valley.

From Etrick, south of Roxburgh, I began travelling back roads I had never been on before, going up over the hills from the Clutha through ——

—– the Moa Flat farming area —–

—– with white woolly Southland sheep (a change from the brown scrawny Central Otago merinos) —–

—– to Tapanui where I freedom camped at Whiskey Gully (not far from Brandy Gully) at the foot of the Blue Mountains.

Wednesday 18^th February from Tapanui I zig-zagged backwards/forwards up/down across-country in Eastern Southland from Waipahi to Pukerau, then Kaiwera, Otaria, Nithdale and Diamond Peak, all places I lived in 85 plus years ago. All the original houses are gone, replaced by new dwellings (and new families). I entered Gore from the south-east via Ontario Street where my Gunn grandparents lived, their old house with the pit privy out the back long ago replaced by a commercial development – life moves on.

I check on 244 Main Street Gore, the last home I stayed in when visiting Gore in the 1960s. After it changed hands in the late 1980s the property had been let go by the owner up until 2024 when it was sold. New owners over the last 2 years have ——

—— restored the front garden, and —–

—– painted the house bringing the property back to life again.

From Gore I did another cross country trip starting from McNab at the beginning of the Waikaka Valley past the Ernie and Lila Herron farm “Rosedale” at Howe railway siding which we moved to in 1941, its original homestead —–

—– now fully modernised and refurbished as “Howe Park”.

The Waikaka river valley from McNab up country 25km to Waikaka Village was completely turned over by gold dredges —–

—– in the 1920s and ‘30s with huge gravel piles (coarse tailings) littering the river flats and which became overgrown with blackberry and gorse. We could not farm the flats in my days, but now modern farmers have leveled the tailings, covered them with topsoil and created productive sheep pastures.

I spotted one old dredge off the road on private land as I neared Waikaka —–

—— with its huge gravel (coarse tailings) conveyor reaching out high above the field.

After lunch at Waikaka Village I cut west through rich cropping areas with this —–

—— clover field awaiting harvest, and then turned north to —–

—— Waikaia with its famous bottle house at the Switzers Museum. Two years ago when I passed through here the bottle house was shrouded in plastic ——

—– and they are still working to trace persistent leaks, thus not allowing visitors to climb up inside.

From Waikaia to Piano Flat, the Doc Camping site I was heading to for the night, there were shorn lambs on the move, with —–

—— this mob stretching some 2km into the far distance to the tree on the horizon at the left of the roadway.

On the way out from Piano Flat Thursday 19^th February it was cattle that gained my attention ——

——- as I also gained their attention. Then further down the road I had to give way to a mob —–

—– of stud rams.

Driving out of the Waikaia River Valley into the widespread plains of the Mataura River valley there was a change from sheep to wheat ——

—-with harvesters catching up on crops drying out after recent rains.

South of Lumsden heading for Winton it was haymaking in progress ——

—— with plastic wrapped bales ——

—— dominating the landscape.

I headed to Winton to visit the Forest Hill and Tussock Creek Reserve south of the town, passing —–

—– the “Golden Terraces” alpaca farm on the way.

The Dereck Turnbull walking track is a 1 hour one-way walk from the Tussock Creek Reserve entrance to the Forest Hill entrance with a steep and sometimes muddy surface on the way. I walked the first 20 minutes in from Tussock Creek on the best part of the track with a steady climb through forest which included loads of ——

—– ribbon wood trees.

The Forest Hill track was used as a training ground by local man Dereck Turnbull who in 1977 at the age of 51 began entering international masters running events, competing in more than 50 marathons, and achieving 25 world age group records as well as 28 world gold masters medals, one of the most successful veteran runners in the world. He never had a training programme or a coach – just ran around Forest Hill on a daily run.

Friday 20^th February I left my Nightcaps freedom camping spot at 8am and travelled up to coal mining centre, Ohai. The township grew from 1917 when high quality coal was discovered in the area and expanded substantially from 1925 when railway access to the mine was completed. However, with the introduction of —–

—– mechanised underground mining machines —–

—– shown here, labour requirements reduced significantly leading to a drop in town population. Finally declining coal demand led to the mine closing in 2021.

From Ohai it was another cross-country drive south past a community hall ——

—— serving four local districts I had never heard of —–

—– to then turn east to Otautau where I passed a group of young cows huddling together for warmth during a freezing rain event.

In Otautau I stopped by the WW 1 memorial featuring two field guns in shelters, —–

—– one German, the other Turkish. “Worth a Detour” says no one knows who souvenired these and brought them back to NZ. During WW 2 the NZ Army borrowed both guns for use in artillery training, and subsequently returned them to Otautau.

From Otautua I drove north via Nightcaps to Mossburn then west to Te Anau which had the lowest morning temperature in the country Friday, and another very cold night on the way.

Saturday 21^st February it was up early to take the 7.30am excursion from Manapouri to Doubtful Sound. After check-in we queued on the boat-ramp for boarding —–

—– as a colourful sunrise greeted us in the east. Then it was onto —–

—– MV Titiroa with 146 other day trippers to head out across Lake Manapouri to West Arm to then travel by bus up over the Wilmot Pass to Doubtful Sound Harbour.

There is still snow —–

—– on the tops of the mountain range across the lake, even visible—–

—– up the lakeside valleys we cruised past.

The early morning low cloud persisted as we ——

—– disembarked at West Arm to board three large buses to head over the Pass, hence we had no chance of looking down into Doubtful Sound during the trip over.

Leaving Doubtful Sound Harbour there were other —–

—– excursion boats heading out, such as the Tutoko II above —

—

—– and the Fiordland Navigator returning from an overnight cruise.

We soon came across the effects that the last two days of rain had had on —–

—– the Sound’s tallest waterfall (actually it is really a cascade), here with only its top half visible above low cloud. However, the overcast and low cloud conditions —–

—– created an aura of mystery to the cruise, either looking ahead —–

—– or looking back.

When we reached the —–

—— rocky islets at the exit to the Tasman Sea our boat (the Titiroa) heaved up and down on the swell making it difficult to get photos, but I did get a long-distance shot of —–

—– these “rabbits ears” (as Captain Cook called them) before we —–

—– left them behind as we headed back down the sound.

I got the bottom half of —–

—– the cascade on the return, then joined the queue of travellers getting their picture —–

—– with the NZ maritime flag on the back of the Titiroa. We had a following wind on the voyage back, hence the flag stayed totally limp.

By the time our 3 hour cruise ended at midday, and we headed by bus past —–

—–the Helena Falls (here discharging into the tailrace flows from the power station turbines), up to Wilmot Pass, the cloud had lifted and ——

——- we all hopped out to check the view. My best photo —–

—— shows the Sound stretching well out toward the horizon with the Helena Falls visible as the white stripe to the left of the right-hand tree top.

So, back to Manapouri Harbour 2.20pm after a cracker day out to conclude an adventurous week.

Sunday morning 8^th February was spent on route planning for the next couple of weeks based on “Worth a Detour” information. After lunch I took off for Naseby to visit the curling rink —–

—– with its year round operation. It was the first such international facility in Australasia when it opened in 2005 as Australian curling activities in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane use indoor ice-hockey rinks where the ice is nowhere near as good as that in a purpose-built facility.

The curling rink, based at the Maniototo Adventure Park, is open daily —–

—– to visitors who can book online for a 1½ hour session. Players are provided with rubber over-shoes before venturing onto the playing ice.

From the upstairs viewing gallery —–

—– I was able to follow —–

—– a family of four enjoy a game, watched over by a staff member. Scoring is the same as for lawn bowling.

Later I explored the Naseby Museum —–

—— housed in this old shop and across the road from —–

—– the historic 1863 Royal Hotel, one of the oldest original pubs in NZ.

Monday 9^th February saw me heading west from Ranfurly to spend another day on the Otago Rail Trail, this time at the Poolburn viaduct and the two nearby tunnels. I passed —–

—– the Wedderburn station with its restored goods shed and then stopped off to —–

—— view the early morning reflections at Idaburn Dam near Aturehua which is used for —–

—– outdoor curling during winter [stock photo above.]. The Dam has been hosting an annual Bonspiel (curling tournament) since 1932, but of course only when winter ice conditions are suitable.

I based myself at Thurlow Road on the Rail Trail for an 8 km return walk before lunch, being passed ——

—– by many cyclists, some of whom stopped for a chat. I met two Australian and one Canadian group who were doing either the 4 or 5 day tour of the 152km trail and who wanted to know why I was walking and not cycling.

There were great views across the Idaburn Valley as I headed for —–

—– the Poolburn Viaduct which during the peak of construction in 1902 employed 300 workers.

This image of a goods train crossing the viaduct —–

—– was taken on 6 April 1963. The line closed in 1990 with the Rail Trail opening in 2000.

300m on from the viaduct is —–

—– Poolburn Tunnel No.12 with —–

—– its brick lined entrance.

Although the entrances of each tunnel are bricked No.13 tunnel internally has a mix of ——

—– brick lined sections and natural rock due to the brittle nature of the schist through which the tunnel was driven. This means some places need to be secured with brick. [The tunnels are numbered from Dunedin with tunnels 11, 12 and 13 on the Rail Trail and tunnels 1 to 10 from Wingatui up through the Taieri Gorge.]

While preparing a late lunch at 2pm I heard a rustling sound around the van and ——

—- was able to snap a mob of sheep passing by as they crossed the trail from a side road. During lunch and for the remainder of the afternoon I had a restful time watching —–

—–the Super Bowl game in the US. This NFL (National Football League) annual final was instituted in 1967 with this year’s event being between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks.

On Tuesday 10^th, after camping overnight at Aupiro Station on the Rail Trail, I had a morning walk on the trail and then headed down Aupiro Road to the main Idaburn Valley highway where I stopped to —–

—– photo the 3 mailboxes near the road junction so I could compare them with —–

—– Grahame Sydney’s “Auripo Road” mailboxes painted in 1979 [print available from his website]. Today’s mail boxes have been relocated some 20m back along Aupiro Road away from the junction, presumably for traffic safety reasons.

St Bathans was my next visit, parking across from the —–

—– historic hotel before taking a one hour walk —–

—– on the Blue Lake Loop Track.

The track passes around —–

—– and through the strange landscape created during the gold sluicing days of the past.

Heading for Alexandra I stopped off at Omakau to lunch at —–

—– the Muddy Creek café (the “Mu” of Muddy was also missing last year when I came through) where two drivers from a hay baling contract team were also lunching.

My final stop for the day was at the —–

—– Chatto Creek Tavern —–

—— with its quirky garden bar ——

—– and the smallest functioning post office in NZ. Opened in 1892 it closed officially in 1975 but with local support was reopened in 2004, with the post-box cleared Monday to Saturday at 10.30am and letters postmarked “Chatto Creek”.

Wednesday 11^th was a quiet housekeeping day in Alexandra, but I took a look at its graceful steel girder bridge ——

—– which replaced the old 1882 suspension bridge in 1958 while leaving the —–

—– original cable piers intact.

Thursday 12^th February I had booked for a Clyde Dam tour at 4pm, so I visited the Butchers Dam and Flat Top Hill Reserve in the morning.

Butchers Dam holds back an irrigation water lake, —–

—– although not totally successfully as a leaking joint halfway down the dam face is feeding slime growth on the structure.

There was a one hour loop walk up Flat Top Hill from the lake —–

—— with expansive views back across the countryside. Information boards referred to the host of wildfowl inhabiting the lake ——

—— but I only saw a lonely Canadian goose quietly resting —–

—– one-leggedly on a rock off the foreshore.

I lunched at Burton Creek Reserve on the shore of Lake Dunstan above the Clyde Dam —-

—- where a transfer service for cyclists was operating to take riders up the lake to Cromwell.

At 4pm I reported to the —–

—– office for the Dam Tour and joined 5 other travellers and tour host Kim Johnstone who has been operating these tours for 4 years after protracted negotiations with Contact Energy who owns and operates the facility.

We started at the top of the dam structure ——

—–to look down on the four steel inlet penstocks before ——

—– moving downstairs to look back up at the spillway gates.

In between the penstocks and the spillway channels ——

—– there is a seam (covered by the grey plate up the face of the dam) where the two halves of the dam meet.

Yes, there are two separate dam structures butted together with a slip-joint sealed with a special plug held in place by the water pressure behind the dam. When construction of the dam foundations commenced back in 1977 geologists found an old faultline right across the valley where the centreline of the dam was to be sited. That resulted in some serious “head scratching”. The solution was to build two concrete dam units so that if an earthquake occurred, instead of a single monolithic dam fracturing and Lake Dunstan spilling through and down the valley, the two halves would move apart or sideways and the plug at the slip-joint would adjust itself under the water pressure to keep the gap water tight. Since the dam and powerhouse were completed in 1989 there have been no earthquakes.

Kim showed us a cross-section of the dam structure —–

—– and indicated the central inspection corridor carrying drainage seepage that we were about to enter (red circled corridor above).

Four drainage corridors run the full width of the dam, with a break around the slip-joint in the centre.

So, next stop was—–

—–the powerhouse —–

—— where a working model of the generation system was shown to us. The red arrow shows the walkway location we were to descend to between the turbine and the generator coils. Water enters on the left from a penstock and circles around and down through the turbine blades spinning the shaft attached to the generator coil system.

We then proceeded from —–

——- the main floor of the powerhouse ——

—- down one floor to the head of the No. 4 generator ——

—– then three further floors down to the space between the turbine under our feet and the generator coils above our head, with the vertical shaft between the two spinning at 125rpm in front of us (too noisy to talk down here).

So, out from the powerhouse —–

—– past the transformer units feeding electricity to the lines above them —–

—— for a tour group photo where behind us on the left is the pylon with lines conveying power north to the Cook Strait cable for the North Island, and on the right the pylon lines feeding the South Island power grid.

After freedom camping at Champagne Gully on the lake shore between Clyde and Cromwell, Friday 13^th February saw me enter the Highlands Motor Sport facility at Cromwell —–

—– passing this VW Beetle on the way to the carpark.

The main museum floor was crowded with—–

—– high powered racing sedans and dragsters —-

—– plus this racing truck.

On display was the —–

—– Rolls Royce Ghost owned and driven by Tony Quinn, the developer of the Highlands facility.

It was raining steadily during my visit, —–

—– but I braved the rain to get outside and downstairs to —–

—– this feature addition to the Highlands experience —–

—— where six rooms with one-way glass enabled users to watch the racing while sitting on the toilet.

You can see the pedestal on the right —–

—– with a direct view outside —–

—— and the washbasin on the left.

The most glamourous unit was —–

—– this delux toilet —–

—– with its cultural inclusions and black toilet and washbasin units —–

—–adding to its grandeur.

[There is a dedicated male toilet with a Donald Trump theme that is too gross to include here – some US reader may report me to the authorities which could result in my being banned from visiting that country.]

This aerial shot [web-site sourced] of Highlands shows—–

—– the six one-way windows of the “Loo with a View” reflecting the grass lawn in front of the facility.

The way the system works is illustrated by the entrance door where —–

—– it presents as a mirror from the outside ——

—– while inside you can see out through the one-way glass to the approach steps.

Leaving Cromwell for the north I stopped off at the Wooing Tree —–

—– located in a subdivision park across the road from the —–

—– main town centre.

Originally this old pine was one of several trees in the open fields adjacent to town, and from around the 1920s gained a reputation as a place enjoyed by courting couples. When the land was purchased for a vineyard and the buyers started to clear the pine trees scattered across the site a protest movement convinced the new owners —–

—– to protect the pine [vineyard website photo].

Eventually the Wooing Tree vineyard was sold to land developers who retained the pine in their Wooing Tree subdivision.

Saturday 14^th February I awoke at the Luggate freedom camping site near the Red Bridge with some —–

—– 50 plus other overnighters ready to start their day.

The road to Lake Hawea passed through the Hawea Flats where centre pivot irrigators —–

—– were in full operational mode, —-

—– and where necessary crossing fences and roadways with special deflectors lowering fence wiring to allow wheels to pass over as needed.

My destination was the Lake Hawea Esplanade walkway, a 1½ hour return walk —–

—– above the lake foreshore.

I walked back along the main street passing many new houses and street-side gardens ——

—– where I was treated to this view of busy bumble-bees feeding on a sunflower.

My final visit for the day was to the Southern Crested Grebe nesting boxes —–

—– in an arm of the lake at the Hawea Dam. There was one bird in each of the three floating boxes, with this one —–

—– coyly showing herself in the left-hand box of this group.

Overnight Saturday I stayed at the Hawea Holiday Park, now renamed as “The Camp”, before heading for Wanaka on Sunday.

I left Omarama 8.30 am Sunday 1^st February with concern re an unusual on-and-off rattling sound from the right front of the engine which had become noticeable as I travelled up to Mt Cook last week. I therefore decided that after my intended visits Sunday and Monday to Waimate I should get the van checked out by the Ford Dealer in Oamaru.

First stop on the journey east was to the Benmore Hydroelectric Power Station with its earth dam holding back the largest man-made lake in NZ. In 1958 I worked for the Ministry of Works and Development (MWD) in the Dunedin Regional Office, and my first job was to design the water reticulation and sewerage layout for the new Otematata Township that was to provide several hundred homes and dozens of single men’s cabins, all for staff involved in the dam construction.

My varsity boarding house and engineering school friend Doug Inch in 1959 joined the MWD staff at Benmore as a senior technical engineer in the soils testing laboratory monitoring daily the compaction of the earthen (gravel and rock) materials being placed and in particular the clay wall core of the dam which is the main component holding back water from seeping through the earth fill. When Lake Benmore was filling the weight of water accumulating in the valley above the dam caused several minor earthquakes as the pressure on the earth’s surface increased.

So I have a vested interest in Otematata and the dam, the project being completed and commissioned in 1965.

The penstocks carrying water from the lake to the power station (cross-section in above photo) were the first-time use of prestressed concrete, replacing the steel pipe penstocks normally used in previous schemes.

The penstocks on the left above are indeed —–

—– quite massive, with the earth dam leading across the valley to —–

—– the spillway which is used when high upstream river flows exceed the needs of the power generation system.

Currently the spillway was not in action, but in full flow —–

—– the energy dissipater at the entrance to the Waitaki River provides quite a spectacular show [above picture sourced from stock photo].

Further down the Waitaki River from Benmore is a second but smaller dam at Aviemore, completed in 1968. This dam is —–

—– half earth and half concrete. Do you see the two thin trees in the field to the left of the top of the powerhouse? Well, two groups of —–

—– merino sheep are there, competing for shade on this very hot day.

Down river from Aviemore is a third dam at the Waitaki Power Station. Waitaki was the first scheme on the river and completed in 1934 with additional generators added in 1949 and 1954.

The dam itself is concrete —–

—– with the top of the dam acting as an overflow weir during high river flows.

I then headed through Kurow south to Duntroon where —–

—– after lunch at the Flying Pig drove some 10 km west to the Elephant Rocks geological wonder—-

—— that I had visited on previous South Island trips.

However this time I walked down and around the massive limestone outcrops —–

—– instead of just photographing them from the main ridge as I had done on past occasions.

The rock formations here were used as backdrops in the first “Chronicles of Narnia” movie 2005.

To get to Waimate and a freedom camping spot I had picked out as a base from which to visit the town Monday morning 2^nd February I had to travel back to Kurow, cross the beautifully clear blue waters of the Waitaki River and head east then north to my overnight stay at the Black Hole on the Waihao River Reserve. The idea was to cross off my Waimate visits Monday morning and then travel down to SH1 and through to the Ford garage in Oamaru.

Black Hole was down a limestone valley —–

—– into a very quiet spot overnight. Black Hole referred to a deep swimming pool by that rock to the front of the van.

However, starting up the van Monday morning changed my mind – could I trust the engine to last out until the afternoon? So at 7.30 I cut across backcountry roads to head for SH1 and into Oamaru Ford arriving 8.30 to ask if they could check out the unusual noise and advise if I had a real problem or not. Initially they thought it may be an issue with the timing belt that also drove the alternator and the air-conditioning system but when they turned the air-conditioning on there was an almighty “BANG-clatter-clatter-clatter” and they said it is the drive system for that unit that has failed (and lucky that I happened to be in their workshop yard when it happed instead of way out in the middle-of-nowhere).

The process of repairs involved getting parts (if available) couriered in from Dunedin or Christchurch then fitting them, a two or more day program. So, they lent me a courtesy car into which I packed clothes and the contents of the fridge, and I left them to it while I took off to find accommodation for 3 nights. Three motels I tried could not take me but I ended up with Monday night in the Brydone Hotel and Tuesday/Wednesday in the Brydone’s sister accommodation, the North Star Motel. I needed room and fridge access Monday morning and Brydone was able to put me in a room at 10.30am (allowing me to load my fridge items promptly).

The Brydone was built in Oamaru stone in 1881 —–

—— and became world famous when Mark Twain stayed there in 1895. A feature of the building is the —–

—– ceiling height on the ground floor. It is 17ft (5.1m) as can be seen in this view of the dining room.

The afternoon gave me opportunity to do the last 2 weeks laundry (which I brought with me from the van) at —–

—– the Thames Street Liquid Laundromat (computer controlled – no coins any more as you pay by phone) on the main thoroughfare in Oamaru. An eventful day.

The next day, Tuesday 3^rd February, I got a call 11am from the Ford garage to say they had got parts in from Dunedin first thing that morning and had completed repairs to the air-conditioning drive system and the van was ready to go. So I cancelled the 2 nights of North Star motel accommodation, collected the van and headed up north —–

—– to Waimate.

There were several places to visit based on the “Worth a Detour” book including —–

—– the Silo Art on the wheat storage silos at the old flourmill site, and the Waimate White Horse (the white spot on the horizon to the right of the silos above). To get up to the White Horse, —-

—– here seen in this telephoto view from the silos, involved a 10km drive over a very narrow gravel back road up a valley behind the above hills.

The view from the top over the Waimate farmland was great, in spite of the cloudy day.

The horse feature was actually quite small (just 18m high), and was built by retired farmers Norman and Betty Hayman in 1968 as a monument recognizing the contribution of the many thousands of Clydesdale and Shire horses to the district’s farming economy.

Back down in town I called at St Augustine’s Anglican Church, —-

—– an 1872 Gothic Revival building now on the Historic Places Register.

It was then time to head for an overnight freedom camping spot off the road back to Oamaru at the outlet of the Waihao River (recall my Black Hole stay Sunday night). The location is known as “The Box” from a hardwood structure tunnelled though the huge gravel bank between the foreshore and the lagoon into which the Waihao discharges. It was constructed in 1910 to provide a permanent outlet for the river due to the fact that the gravel bank pushed up by the tidal flows raised the river level and flooded local farmland.

On the way down the narrow sealed road through farmland to The Box reserve —–

—– I came across another ruined settler cottage in a harvested field.

Wednesday 4^th February I took an early morning stroll to ——

—— take a look at The Box (here seen on the right edge of the lagoon as taken from the rear of the van) —–

—– which on the inlet end is a perching place for shags, and —-

—– on the seaward outlet side takes a pounding from the waves.

Back in Oamaru mid-morning I checked at the Visitor Centre regarding the limestone quarry tours and the evening viewing of the little blue penguins (now just referred to as the Oamaru Penguins), subsequently booking the quarry tour for Thursday and the penguin viewing for the that evening.

At 2pm I called for a visit at —–

—– Janet Frame’s childhood home where her older brother Geordie was fortunate to have a bedroom to himself while Janet and her three sisters shared a large —–

—- double bed.

Janet, whose portrait is featured —–

—– in the sitting room, is one of NZ’s most famous authors with her many works being internationally acclaimed.

So, at 8pm I presented myself at the penguin viewing area on the foreshore under the cliffs that housed the nesting holes that the birds come home to at dusk after all day from 4am fishing way out at sea, —–

—— and joined a full house crowd of whom 90% seemed to be Chinese families. The blue seating area across from the general viewing bench seating area where I sat was for premium ticket holders who were closest to the area where the incoming penguins dashed off the foreshore area through the fence openings into the grass area leading to nests at the base of the cliff.

We were allowed to photograph —–

—– the seals frolicking in front of us but from 8.45pm cameras and phones had to be put away (no photographing of the returning penguins allowed). Two staff then provided a commentary on the life of the blue penguins, the first team member speaking in English, then the second team member repeating the commentary in Mandarin.

By 9.15 three penguins appeared (they were late this evening) and around 9.45 they were coming through in groups of 5, then of 10. Around 15 came through about 10.20 when a lot of people had left. I took off then, snatching a shot of —–

—– the moon lifting itself out of the water on the horizon.

Thursday 5^th February was the busiest day of visits to date. I passed this sign —–

—— on my way to Parkside Quarries at 9.0am to tour the limestone workings.

Part owner and operator, Judy, took a stonemason from Bath in the UK and me around the whole complex, including the floor of the current working quarry where Judy was —–

—– working this circular-saw cutting machine yesterday when I phoned for a tour appointment. You can see the depth to which limestone layers have been cut from 1906 when quarrying commenced here.

Once the longitudinal cuts are finished, cross-cuts and a special lifting tool cracks open the base at depth to create 20 tonne blocks that —–

—– go to the processing area (office on left, workshops and processing on right).

You can see 20 tonne blocks forming the wall of this shed where an order for thin limestone slabs is being prepared to architectural requirements.

In recent times the quarry installed a CNC (Computer Numerically Controlled) machine that can cut and shape stone into a multitude of forms. There are only two of these machines in the Southern Hemisphere, the other being in Sydney. Here the operator is carving —–

—– a dark rock in the same way dentists use a CEREC machine to carve and shape computer designed crowns for a tooth implant. The operator can move the cutting tool backwards/forwards, up/down, sideways left or right, and then start the programme to allow the machine to run on its own while he goes off and does other work. No more hammer and chisel carving. It is so sensitive that —–

—– it produced this bust of Gollum from Lord of the Rings, as well as the limestone ball alongside. This stand —–

—– of finished limestone items awaiting collection from clients shows the versatility of this ZEDA 1600 machine.

I next drove south of Oamaru to Clarks Mill and Totara Estate. With the local farming area highly suited to grain cropping as well as sheep farming Totara Estate constructed in 1866 its own flour and oatmeal Mill —–

—— using Oamaru stone. Subsequently the Estate concentrated on sheep production and sold the mill to the Clark brothers who installed modern grinding equipment in 1893. After closing in 1976 the building and equipment deteriorated until taken over by Heritage NZ and restored to working order over several years by a team of volunteers.

The “modern” grinding machines feed grain —–

—– to a range of screens and sieves to produce —–

—– both white flour and bran (used in animal feed).

The entrance to Totara Estate —–

—– is most noticeable as you travel from Oamaru to Moheno on SH1 —-

—– with a tree lined drive leading to the Estate complex.

I spent over an hour exploring the buildings and grounds starting with —–

—– the men’s quarters including —–

—— the combined dining/living area —–

—– and kitchen. There were 20 men employed from the 1800s as shepherds, crop farming labourers and butchers with another 20 seasonal workers for shearing and harvesting.

Outdoors I visited —–

—– the stables and several other buildings including —–

—– the butchery and meat storage area where in November 1882 linen wrapped sheep carcasses were loaded at the rate of 240 per day from this red door to horse drawn drays for railway transport to Port Chalmers via ice chilled wagons for then loading into the refrigeration chambers on the sailing ship Dunedin. It took a month of this daily work to load 5,000 carcasses for the 3 month sailing to Britain where the whole cargo sold out via Smithfield markets in London at double the price involved in producing and transporting the mutton. It was huge success, giving birth to the modern meat industry today. Prior to 1882 sheep were only farmed for wool, older animals then dying off. Now the NZ economy flourished on both sheep meat and wool.

I completed my Totara Estate visit with 1.30pm lunchtime refreshments —–

—– comprising South Island cheese rolls plus carrot cake and cream and with a huge pot of tea supplanted by a further large pot of hot water. This was a real treat.

My final visit for the day was to Bushy Beach to view the location where the —–

—– Yellow-eyed penguin (hoiho) live and nest [stock photo above].

The “hide” on the cliffs above the beach —–

—– provides a good view if you have binoculars (recommended by “Worth a Detour”), but only a handful of birds returning to their nests late afternoon have been reported in recent weeks, so I did not expect to see any at 2.30pm.

I did however spot a couple of seals —–

—– mid-beach, lazily sunning themselves on the golden sand.

Waitangi Day had me on the road again, heading south to Matanaka near Waikouati. First stop on the way was to check out the Moeraki Boulders which in 2024 were almost submerged in sand. There was a big crowd on the beach, —–

—– mainly Asian tourists, but I was able to get a photo of ——

—– the group of boulders I photo’d in 2024 to compare with the —–

—– 2024 picture shown here. Fortunately the sand is now eroded and the beach lowered by wave action to better expose the boulders (as seen in today’s photo).

Further south high on farmland above coastal cliffs at Waikouati is a group of farm buildings thought to be the oldest in NZ, —–

—– surviving from the 1840s. Why my interest? Well, check out this relationship —–

—– between my “hidden places” guide book and the view beyond the cover.

Unfortunately it was a ——

—— cloudy overcast day this Friday so my photo of the buildings could not reproduce the —–

—– sunny outlook of the picture on the book cover. The small building between the schoolroom on the right and the granary on the left is a three-seater “dunny” (chummy times going to the loo in the 1840s).

My final journey for the day had me back-tracking from Waikouati to Palmerston where I turned west to climb in drizzly wet up to Macraes Flat (Oceana Gold country) and then down into the Middlemarch to Hyde Rail Trail valley, passing on the way —–

—the “Fence of Death”. This was described by “Worth a Detour” as the place where some 20 years ago local pig hunters started hanging pig skins to brag about their hunting skills. The latest pig skin and head 500m along the fence is too gruesome to show, —–

—– so here is a recent deer skin.

Saturday 7^th February I spent on the Otago Rail Trail which is now very popular with bicycle tourists taking the 4 to 5 day ride from Clyde (near Alexandra) to Middlemarch (north of Dunedin). I met my first group —–

—–at 8.30am as I left —–

—– my freedom camping overnight spot to walk ——

—– over the nearby Capburn Viaduct —–

—– on my way —–

—– to Prices Viaduct where —–

—– this group of cattle took an interest in what I was up to.

After my 1¼ hour 4km return walk to Prices Viaduct I needed refreshment at —–

—– the café at the Hyde Hotel. The café re-opened in October last year after being closed over the last 7 years. A flat white and a cheese roll went down well before I took off to —-

—– Hyde Railway Station to do a 45 minute return walk south to —–

—– North Scrub Creek Bridge where just ahead of me a local farmer —–

—- was moving sheep from one side of the rail trail —–

—– to the other.

After lunch at Hyde Station carpark it was time to head to Ranfurly. I stopped on the way to look across the Taieri Valley down to —–

—– Prices Viaduct (middle foreground) and Prices Tunnel (the tiny hole in the hill way in the distance centre right, which I did not reach this morning) for which I provide close-ups below; —–

—– first the viaduct and —–

—– second, the tunnel entrance.

So another cracker of a week on the road, with thanks to “Worth a Detour” guiding my travels.

On Sunday 25^th January I took off 8:10 am for the Kakahu Bush Walk, Historic Lime Kiln and the Escarpment some 30km west of Geraldine. The walking track at 8km return ——

—— was really too far, so I checked out the nearby 500m Escarpment track which the DoC website said was closed because of tree-fall. Sure enough a tree had —–

—– damaged the footbridge providing access to the walking track, and as the ford was too deep to cross on foot due to the high level of the rain filled stream, ——

—— I took off down the access road where I could get views across the valley.

This limestone cliff curves outwards creating an overhang. Limestone is still quarried to make lime fertiliser today, and in the 19^th century local kilns produced burnt lime for a range of uses.

This 1876 pot-style kiln is the last survivor of this local industry. It is double walled with air inlets supporting the burning of coal mixed in layers with lime rock within the inner chamber so that the burnt lime falls to the base and is removed via the arch opening shown here.

I then took off via a zig-zag cross-country drive to Raincliff Historic Reserve on a rural road heading for Fairlie. Just before the Reserve I came across ——

—– St David’s Anglican Church, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. The stone wall was erected by volunteers from the parish to commemorate the church’s 100^th anniversary in 2007.

The church grounds are exceptionally well kept as is the church building and the cemetery alongside it.

The sign for the Historic Reserve gave no indication that it was the site of the Maori Rock Art shown by a star on my map, so I set off expectantly ——

—– up the stairway through the rocks —–

—– to the first rock art overhang, ——

——- then the second.

I had to use the flash on the camera to get good —–

—– images of the five items of red artwork in the first location —–

—– with a close-up view of the two centre ones here.

I zig-zagged some more to cross the Opihi River at Hanging Rock Bridge where —–

—– an impressive rock formation is jutting out over the river on the left of the far bank —–

—– which I then got to view close-up by walking back onto the bridge.

Hanging Rock refers to an escarpment which is famous —–

—– as a rock climbing area (photo above from Google Streetview), and is reached by walking some 700m across Goulds farm located about 300m down the road from the Hanging Rock Bridge. However, the climbnz (NZ Alpine Club) website advises that Hanging Rock crag has been closed for rock climbing since 2018 due to dangerous rock fall conditions.

I then took a very narrow and winding back country gravel road to cross the hills around Hanging Rock and return to the Waitohi Plains to get a sealed road past the Richard Pearse memorial.

This replica is erected at the location where he crash-landed in a hedge on 31 March 1902.

The “Worth a Detour” book says there is a replica of his plane in the Timaru Museum, and I also saw one without an engine in the Ashburton Aviation Museum.

The final visit for the day was to a small transport museum outside Geraldine called —–

—– the Route 79 Museum (above photo from Museum website).

There was a mix of military vehicles ——-

—– including this restored Bren Gun Carrier (a vehicle my father drove during the North Egyptian campaign in WW2).

Of the motor vehicles ——

—– there was a mix of old and new, but this  ——-

—– 1906 Darracq was the oldest in the displays, and had a 2021 registration sticker. The museum owner told me it belongs to his 96 year old father who hasn’t driven it for a while as he could not get his driver licence renewed.

Monday 26^th January I visited the fourth of the transport museums located in and around Geraldine, this one located on the Main Street.

The Museum is operated by the Geraldine Vintage Car & Machinery Club, with displays housed in 4 large buildings plus many outdoor exhibits of farm machinery and construction equipment. I spent 1½ hours there, starting with vintage cars of which the star item is —-

—– this 1928 Chevrolet. It is registered through to December 2026 and is in perfect running order.

There were two tractor buildings, this one ——

—– housing wheeled units including a —–

—– David Brown, our first tractor on the farm at Howe in the Waikaka Valley near Gore, purchased to replace the Clydesdale horses we used up until the late 1940’s.

The second tractor building housed —–

—– crawler tractors which we also used on the farm. Uncle Ernie would work with stock all day and after an early tea would head out on the crawler working under headlights in the night-time cool up until 11pm, ploughing and discing for a new crop to be spring planted.

The other motor vehicle building included —–

—– only two trucks, but —–

—– 10 police motorcycles.

Time for lunch took me to Barker’s —–

—– where a large selection of ——

—– condiments were available for sampling and helping yourself to accompany your meal.

After lunch I stocked up on some specialty cheeses before heading south through Timaru to freedom camp on the foreshore at Pareroa ready for a Maori rock art explore up side valleys off the Pareroa River road next day.

Tuesday 27^th January was overcast and drizzling as I headed west to find Craigmore Hill Road, a dirt road climbing up through Elworthy Station (also known as Holme Station) to a farmland plateau from which access via a four-wheel drive track led to a rock art site. I thought maybe I could get close enough to walk the four-wheel drive track, but this was not to be – mud and drizzle had me turn the van around at the hilltop stock yards. However, I discovered two items of interest right there at the top of the hill in the middle of “nowhere”.

First was —–

—– a NZ National Trust site with a gravel track through a cabbage tree grove ——

—– important in Maori cultural history.

The second was, behind the cabbage tree grove, a memorial to 1864 pioneer farmers Edward and Sarah Maria Elworthy who by 1872 were running 46,000 sheep here on 82,000 acres, one of the largest sheep runs in the country.

This large standing stone was erected on behalf of their descendants in March 2009 during a gathering at Holme Station to celebrate Edward and Sarah’s achievements, ——

—– and looks out over their original farmland in the Craigmore Valley.

I had more luck with the Te Manunui Rock Art site up Frenchman’s Gully, a narrow gravel road off the Craigmore Valley Road. This location ——

—– was a typical limestone rock overhang, fenced off to protect the art works.

There was only black drawing works ——

—– at this location ——

—— but some of the clearest figures ——

—— I have seen so far from the sites I have visited (this one showing a Moa).

Back-tracking down Pareora River Road to the coast I spent the rest of the morning on a 45 minute return walk to Tuhawaiki (Jacks) Point Lighthouse.

This lighthouse was originally erected in 1886 on Somes Island in Wellington Harbour, but was relocated here ——

—– in 1903. A single keeper resided here until 1930 when the light was fully automated.

After lunch at the foreshore track parking area I did a Google search on the phone to find a Timaru car wash that I could use to get the mud spattered van clean again. It really is quite satisfying ——

—– to operate the multi-stage pre-rinse, soap blast, —–

—- foam brush and final rinse to come out —–

—– gleaming again. Then it was off to check-in at the Top 10 Holiday Park for the night.

Wednesday 28^th January involved three cultural visits in Timaru. First was at —–

—– the Te Ana Maori Rock Art Centre located within the Information and Visitor Centre. This historic building was constructed by —–

—— Captain Henry Cain who provided the first ship landing service for Timaru when the harbour was at this location. He subsequently became a successful businessman and prominent public figure serving as Mayor 1870 to 1873.

I had opportunity to talk with Helen, the Manager at Te Ana, about the extent of rock art sites around the South Island based on a map I had seen Tuesday at Te Manunui showing sites from Kaikoura through Canterbury, Otago and even Fiordland. She said there are 761 sites throughout the South Island, 412 in South Canterbury and 286 in Otago. The Fiordland site is the first to include —–

—– a sailing ship.

The most famous rock art drawing is that of —–

—–the Taniwha from the Opihi cave complex. The Opihi River Valley contains 18 rock art sites which are under controlled access on private land. The Centre takes tours (in good weather) to the location which is quite close to the Raincliff site I visited on Sunday. The Taniwha image above has inspired artwork —–

—– such as this painting and —–

—– this 1960 stamp put out by NZ Post.

Before lunch —–

—– I popped in to the South Canterbury Museum to see their replica of the Richard Pearse plane with which he achieved the first powered take-off in the British Empire 31 March 1902 (the landing was a crash into a farm hedge). Pearse was a self-taught engineer and inventor and had worked on a design for a vertical take-off and landing plane for which he developed Patent drawings.

After lunch I spent the afternoon at the Aigantighe Art Gallery, with three current exhibitions to visit. The gallery is based in the historic house built in 1908 as a retirement residence by Alexander and Helen Grant who farmed the Grays Hill sheep station in the Mackenzie Country.

Alexander died in 1921 but Helen lived to the age of 101 and gifted the house to be used as an art gallery following her death in 1955. The building —–

—– is in magnificent condition, and is sited in extensive grounds which contain —–

—– a sculpture garden with limestone art works (seen beyond these gardeners at their 3pm “smoko”), and ——

—– these “rusted steel” sentinels on the patio outside the modern extension to the gallery.

The major current exhibition is Blackened Tapa work by a Tongan artist Stone Maka from Christchurch. His work is displayed on several large —–

—— tapa cloths with the designs including a range of coloured circles.

While I explored the other exhibitions from the modern extension through the refurbished homestead I found equally interesting the artwork —–

—— incorporated within the original stained glass windows —–

—— and their excellent detail.

Thursday 29^th January was a travel day Timaru to Lake Pukaki on the way to Aoraki Mt Cook. The approach into Fairlie was through —–

—– the Peace Avenue with its 500 oak trees planted from 1918 to commemorate the end of WWl.

This statue of James Mackenzie and his dog recognises him being the first white man to enter the tussock covered high country north of Fairlie now known as the Mackenzie Basin. As I headed for Burkes Pass, gateway to the Mackenzie country, I was taken by —–

—– the ruin of this settler cottage standing in the middle of a harvested hayfield.

Burkes Pass settlement was a quirky place ——

—— sprinkled with old machinery and slab timber outdoor furniture ——

—– with several “trading post” shops, this one —–

—– crowded with motoring memorabilia.

Anyway, I took time out for ——

—– a real fruit blueberry ice-cream.

The first scenic lookout in the Mackenzie country included this —

—— very tall mahi toi (artwork). Its design represents mihimihi (a welcome) to Kā Tiritiri o te Moana (the Southern Alps), Aoraki (Mt Cook), and Te Manahuna (Mackenzie Country). It is one of several collaborations between Waka Katohi (NZ Transport Agency) and Maori runanga (tribal councils) in the area.

This location is known as Dog Kennel Corner and part of the artwork references rock art representations of a dog.

Thursday night I freedom camped at Lake Wardell (actually a tree-lined pond) near Lake Pukaki ready to head up to Aoraki Mt Cook Friday morning.

Tasman Glacier was my Friday 30^th January morning objective, so I was away at 10 to 7 up SH80 toward Aoraki Mt Cook 50km to the north. Looking east across Lake Pukaki ——

—– I could see the Old Man Range on the horizon beyond the low cloud —–

—– that was obscuring Aoraki to the north.

However, I was soon coming out from under the cloud to glimpse the mountain ranges ahead of me —–

—– with Aoraki shining magnificently in the early morning sun.

My objective was the Tasman Glacier up a sealed road ——

—— over the Hooker River bridge to a parking lot below the ancient terminal moraine —–

—– to the right of this shelter. The 20 minute walk to the Glacier Lookout was stated to be “easy”, but with 337 steps (yes, I counted them on the way down) to climb up to the top of the moraine ——

—– it took much longer for me, with frequent rest stops to look back down the track and —–

—— a pause to catch this friendly Silvereye.

With Aoraki behind me, the upper glacier a white speck below the distant mountain centre right, and the whitish face of the calving glacier on the right at the head of the glacier lake, it was stunning place to be. There were no “icebergs” down the lower end of the lake; they —-

—– were all clustered on the left of the upper bay below the rock debris covered glacier ice.

So, at 9.30am I began my descent carefully down ——

—— the steps to then head for the DoC Visitor Centre at the Hermitage —–

—- which was sited to obtain a great view of Aoraki. I soaked up loads of excellent information and displays about the National Park, its wildlife and history, as well as climbing achievements from the first ascent Christmas Day 1894 to the present.

The summit is approached from the lower peak via a very narrow ridge, —–

—– a route not for the fainthearted (above photo from TV documentary at the Visitor Centre).

So, at the end of a most informative day it was away to Omarama to book in for a couple of nights at the Top 10 Holiday Park.

After mist cleared around 10am on Saturday 31^st January I headed 5km north of Omarama to the Clay Cliffs turnoff which after 5km on a good road turned west on a bone-shaking —–

—– corrugated and dusty gravel road 10km into the Cliffs carpark.

The cliffs are composed of weak sedimentary layers of white and grey sandstone and mudstone —–

—– which have been eroded into classic ‘badlands’ terrain —–

—– of canyons, towers and pinnacles.

Close-up you can readily see the —–

—— sedimentary nature of the pillars.

At the end of the walkway the track led through a —–

—– narrow defile into —–

—– an open amphitheater with some central pillars surrounded by plant growth.

Returning to the carpark at around 12 noon the view was across the —–

—– Ahuriri River Valley to Omarama.

Thus ended a week of considerable travel variety with next week heading for Waimate and Oamaru.

On Saturday 17^th January I travelled north to Waipara and Freedom Camped overnight at the Glenmark Reserve on Church Road. Next morning I drove down Church Road to near the junction with SH1, and visited the historic —–

—– St Paul’s Anglican Church, built in 1906.

This outstanding brick building is visible from SH 1 —–

—– sitting on a knoll above the road when heading south toward Waipara (above photo from Heritage NZ website), and I have always been curious as to its stately presence so far out in the countryside.

It was built and paid for by Annie Quayle Townend in memory of her father, Glenmark farmer George Henry Moore (1812 -1905). In addition she had a 12 room vicarage —–

—– provided on the property with foot access to the church some 200m away via —–

—– a bush walk and creeper covered archway through to a lychgate at the edge of the church grounds.

The first Canterbury earthquake in September 2010 caused considerable but repairable damage to the building, After years of restoration work and spending some $2.5m the Friends of Glenmark Church were able to open the church for worship mid-2023 while continuing internal refurbishment. This culminated in the shifting of the wooden pews back into the church (no more deck chairs) in November last year. The Vicarage —–

—– now has a life of its own.

For Sunday 18^th January I had booked for a repeat trip on the Weka Pass Railway, leaving from —–

—– Glenmark Station. The Weka Pass Railway originally operated with a classic —–

—– steam engine (photo from a display in the station), but unfortunately it’s boiler failed inspection last year and restoration will take considerable funds and several years of work. So we had to settle for diesel powered locomotives, two being involved ——

—– in today’s excursion.

After we got underway —–

—– I turned to look back on the train’s rear ——

—– and saw we were being followed by a Suzuki SUV which turned out to be the fire truck. The train now has to be followed by fire control as a precaution in case an engine spark starts a rail side grass fire. The SUV carries two crew, a large water tank, a pump and long hoses. This year’s rain frequency has kept the grass green and fire risk is thus resultantly low.

Weka Pass provides loads of examples of road and rail-side —–

—– limestone formations with —–

—– Frog Rock being the most photographed as we headed toward —–

—– the cutting behind the rock.

I was well wrapped up with extra jerseys and a wind-jacket —–

—– for the trip via the open-air wagon – here I am waiting for the engines at the Waikari terminus ——

—— to change to the front of the train for the return journey.

After the rail trip I headed for Hanmer Springs for another Freedom Camping night so as to position myself for a Hanmer Forest Walk Monday morning. That turned out to be a major disappointment. Remember this photo from 20^th March 2025 ——

—– with the dog on a pedestal at the entrance to the wooden sculpture trail? Well, —–

—– here is the view Monday 19^th January 2026. A huge wind storm swept through the area in October last year snapping the tops of trees off so they are dangling dangerously over the track – access will take months to restore.

So I took a forest walk back across the road, and soon came to —–

—– some of the tree damage there. Because there were plenty of alternative tracks, access had not been closed off —–

—– and I was able to see some of the damage the winds had wrecked in this other part of the forest.

I took off back out of Hanmer, across the —–

—– 1887 Waiau Ferry bridge to take SH 7 up to Lewis Pass.

The entrance via SH 7 to the 67km 4 to 6 day tramp on St James Walkway is accessed from a carpark just before the Pass. I stopped there to —–

—– view The Tarn, a tiny lake which can freeze up with 6 inches (150mm) of ice during the winter. There was also a 30-minute alpine walk near The Tarn which —–

—– was well worth a visit with several information boards and many plant species with name posts. On the hillside across the valley ——

—— a small stream was cascading down the steep slope.

The carpark at the St James entrance was also designated as a Freedom Campsite, but being full of cars as well as water filled potholes I gave it a miss and went 5 minutes back down the road to the DoC Deer Valley —–

—– campsite.

Monday night was cold (5 degrees C) but Tuesday 20^th January I was up and away 7am and pleased I had not attempted to stay at the carpark up the road as it was full of —–

—– two helicopters, a concrete truck and a host of construction workers and vehicles about to begin construction of a new cell tower on a nearby high spot.

At 8:45 I arrived in Reefton where I visited the new water powered electricity station on the site of the old 1888 generator which was the first to provide power for community street lighting in the Southern Hemisphere. The wooden flume ——

—– is now delivering water to the new generator building ——

—– alongside which is a replica of the original 1888 generator.

The new generator, I was told by a local resident, generates enough power to supply half the current street lighting system in Reefton. The replica unit is yet to be commissioned.

Before moving on from Reefton I stopped off for morning coffee at ——

—– the historic bakery on the main street —–

—— which I found was “worth a detour” ——

—– on the recommendation of the “hidden places” travel book given to me for Christmas by Calum and Ali. Author Peter Janssen said their traditional Scottish shortbread was “near the top”, so I took the book in with me to show the staff who were thrilled to read the book’s entry on the cafe. I purchased a pack of shortbread to enjoy with my flat white.

From Reefton I travelled through the Buller Gorge to divert south near Westport to Charleston and visit —–

—– Mitchell’s Gully Goldmine with its walkway —–

—– along the old ore carrying railway passing through ——

—– a series of tunnels. The water powered stamper battery —–

—– was not operating at the time.

In the limestone valley behind Charleston is the Nile River Rainforest Train which carries Cave Rafting adventurers and sightseers up the valley. I had missed the last train for the day so drove into —–

—– the rail terminus ——

—– to take the rail-side walking track beside the river. There were great views of —–

—– limestone cliffs across the river. I also encountered —–

—– a feral goat nannie and ——

—— her two kids on my trek.

Returning from my 1 hour walk up the valley trail I was about to drive out when —–

—– the afternoon train arrived back with a full load of passengers.

From Charleston I headed south along the coast —–

—– with its many rocky headlands ——

—– to spend the night at the Fox River Freedom Camping spot, enduring thousands of sand-flies during an evening walk.

Punakaiki was my destination Wednesday morning, not to see the blowholes, but to visit the Paparoa National Park exhibit —–

—– at the DoC information and Visitor Centre. I had missed out on this experience during my 2025 visit.

The highly professional exhibition covered cultural, geological and natural features of the Paparoa National Park with an ever-changing video wall entrance ——

—— leading to four rooms ——

—— covering cultural history, ——

—– wildlife, —–

—— forest growth and —–

—– geology (with an active replica of a blowhole).

With a rainy weather forecast for the next few days for both Westland and Canterbury I set off for Christchurch via Greymouth, heavy rain setting in as I climbed up the Otira Gorge in first gear —-

—– behind a huge transport truck.

The next day, Thursday 22^nd January, was a total washout with steady and at times heavy rain all day. Confined to the motorhome in the Tasman Holiday Park in Papanui gave me an opportunity to plan my route ahead and highlight the best of the “worth a detour” visits on the way.

The weather forecast for Friday indicated thunderstorms from late afternoon, so I took advantage of the dry but overcast morning to bus into the city and get an All Day Tram Pass —–

—– allowing me to hop-on/hop-off throughout the day on the 50-minute circuit.

First hop-off was to view the new covered 30,000 seat venue, —-

—— the One New Zealand Stadium (Te Kaha), here shown from the One NZ website. All I could see at street level ——

—– was this view looking east down Cashel Street. It will be completed for opening this coming ANZAC Weekend for a 3-day Super Rugby Tournament involving 10 teams from NZ, Australia, Fiji and the Pacific.

I also noticed new murals on buildings that had been added since last year’s visit, the most notable being —–

—– this very tall girl.

The sun came out as I travelled another few tram stops to the Pop-Up Museum where an —–

—— International photographic exhibition was on. The Museum is undergoing a 5 year total reconstruction on its original site, hence the temporary Pop-Up location in a commercial building nearby.

I actually found the photos from the local Christchurch competition more interesting than the overseas ones. The following two bird pictures were especially good, —–

—– a spoonbill at sunset and —–

—– a kea coming in for a landing.

So following lunch at the Thirsty Peacock restaurant in the Art Gallery and some more hop-on/hop-off tram riding I caught the No.1 bus back to Papanui and put my feet up for the rest of the day as rain clouds threatened on the horizon.

Saturday 24^th January started overcast with rain forecast again for mid-afternoon. Fortunately my first visit was in the morning at Trott’s Garden in Ashburton where it stayed dry. My next visit was after lunch to the Ashburton Aviation Museum, housed under cover in three huge hangers. The rain started at 2.30 as I left the museum and headed off for Geraldine.

Trott’s Garden is 4.5 hectare property —–

—– with an extensive garden planted by Catherine and Alan Trott beginning in 1978. It is now recognised as —–

—– a garden of international significance, and incorporates —–

—– a wedding chapel —–

—– and a British style Pub, the Brantwood Arms.

Particular features of the extensive gardens and woodland include —–

—– this dovecote and pond, ——

—– the Red Garden —–

—– with its Adam and Eve at the tree (yes, that’s an apple in Eve’s right hand), —–

—– plus stands of trees —–

—– including those around the pond, —–

—– and the ornamental Knot Garden with its four plots (two of which are shown here).

The Aviation Museum occupied two hangers with a third new larger hanger being fitted out to take other aircraft waiting to be displayed. I must say I was impressed, having visited several such aviation heritage centres in NZ and Australia.

Hanger One had a viewing platform —–

—– from which I could get a good overview of the exhibits such as this DC 3 civilian plane and the Vampire jet fighter above, ——

—— and the Skyhawk and Harvard in the centre of this group.

Overall it was a great exhibition of flight with small and large planes plus gliders, microlights and helicopters.

So I have ended my Saturday travels at Geraldine Top 10 Holiday Park where I will be based through to Monday morning.

I spent Sunday 11^th January at Sumner Beach where strong winds were whipping up a sandstorm on the foreshore Esplanade as I passed the iconic Cave Rock at the entrance to the village. So I drove down to Scarborough Park —–

—– at the sheltered end of the beach —–

—– which was packed with families ——-

—– enjoying the surf —–

—– and the water playground.

On Monday 12^th I revisited and walked the trail around the —–

—– Otukaikino Wetland near Kaiapoi, designated as a Living Memorial.

The Department of Conservation together with funeral directors Lamb and Hayward are restoring the wetland by planting trees to commemorate the loss of loved ones. Annually a memorial service is held at the wetland to honour the memory of those who have passed during the year

Although rare birds such as the spotless crake and the Australian Bittern have been seen at the wetland, the only birds I saw were —–

—– the NZ Scaup, or diving duck.

Late afternoon I drove out to ——-

—— Hororata, the base for —–

—— my Tuesday early morning adventure. Hororata is a one hour drive southwest from Christchurch into the Canterbury Plains.

Ballooning Canterbury has a NZMCA (NZ Motor Caravan Association) POP (Park Over Property) site in a field next to their HQ, so I settled in with the motorhome for an early night having to rise in time for a 5am check-in on Tuesday 13^th. With pilot Nick (who first flew balloon solo at age 12), ground crew member Dean, and 5 other expectant ballooners we headed off in the dark to the Glentunnel Domain towing the balloon package and the basket on a trailer behind the van.

Launching the balloon was a fascinating exercise, involving assistance from members of our party ——

—— who in the dawn light held the open end of the balloon while a blower forced cold air in to inflate it. The basket at this stage is lying on its side.

At the top end of the balloon Dean invited me to take a photo down through the inside —–

—– toward the opening through which air was being forced.

Once the inflation size had reached an appropriate level ——

—— the basket was stood on its base, passengers scrambled aboard, the —–

—– gas burners were activated,—–

—– and I waited expectantly for ——

—— liftoff as ground crew member, Dean, put the mooring ropes and blower away and got ready to follow our voyage from the road.

Afloat at 6am we were ready at 6.08 to view ——

—– the sunrise from 2,500 feet —–

—– when Nick, our pilot, —–

—–took time out to take a photo of each of us on our own camera.

The view to the southwest took in the cold air fog —–

—– nestling in a valley ——-

—— while directly west we looked back onto the foothills leading to the Southern Alps.

Heading slowly eastwards —–

—– the open country gradually morphed into —–

—– flat plains with —–

——- views of Coalgate farm-lets and their ——

—–animals, the cows looking up at us, but the sheep unconcerned.

As we passed over Coalgate Village we were able to see our shadow following us —–

—– over the sale yards.

Nick then increased our elevation with ——

—— short bursts from one of the burners ——

—– so we could look back on Coalgate.

On the south side of Coalgate we could see across the plains fields dotted with —– 

—– centre-pivot water irrigation systems which were in —–

—– full operation everywhere we looked.

We also passed over a barley crop ——

—– where Nick took us down low to skim along just above fence level —–

—— where we got a good view of an irrigator watering the pasture next to the grain crop.

After an hour afloat it was time to look for a landing place. Now we were in dairy farm country —–

—– with the cows looking inquisitively up at us.

As we climbed to look ahead for a cow-free paddock, I watched our shadow —–

—– “herding” this mob of cows.

Spotting a potential landing spot we dropped lower again and swept over the grass a metre or so above the ground. Nick had to take evasive action —–

—– to lift us over an oncoming irrigator ——

—— which I was able to look back on as we passed over.

Dean (in the van with trailer top right of this photo below) radioed Nick to confirm that the paddock behind —–

—– the stock yards on this farm was a good landing spot, ——-

—— so he carefully touched the ground with the basket gripping and sliding over the grass until we came to an upright stop – brilliant flying.

With the basket then set on its side —–

—– gradually the balloon began to deflate.

It was then all hands to work —–

—— letting the hot air out of the top of the balloon, —–

—– wrapping it up, —–

—– and packing it into its cover.

We then gathered around the hospitality table (bubbly, fruit juice, muffins and fruit) —–  

—– and with pilot Nick (on the right) celebrated a successful conclusion to this really great adventure.

So at 8.30 I was on my way back to Christchurch to spend some of the day sorting the 175 photos I took during this flight.

Wednesday 14^th January it rained all morning, so I stayed in camp for the day, taking some walking exercise around the Holiday Park when the rain cleared mid-afternoon. Thursday was wet all day with steady rain starting 7.00am – a day in-house working on route planning for the weeks ahead. Friday, with some drizzle in the morning and cloudy and cool the rest of the day, I spent on housework and laundry before heading to nearby Northlands Mall for lunch and shopping for supplies. With Wednesday to Friday being a “washout” I maybe will come back to Christchurch at some stage later in this trip.

Saturday 17^th was more rain as I headed north to Waipara to take the Weka Pass Railway trip on the Sunday morning.