Post 38 – SOUTH ISLAND TRAVELS, 2026 [Week 5 – Sunday 25th to Saturday 31st January]

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.