SOUTH ISLAND -January to April 2025 [Week 10]

Sunday 23 March:

I started my Saturday visit to Blackball at the original 1898 to 1938 mine workings where —–

—– coal was transported by an aerial ropeway until 1910 when rail service was provided.

Apart from the boiler chimney on the hillside the rest of the coal processing area was concrete foundations and rusty metalwork. The was a sign pointing to “Mine Walk” that turned out to be —–

—– a steep 30 minute climb involving around 10 zig-zags to emerge —–

—– to a hill-top viewing point over Blackball township and right out over the Grey River valley. [It took 20 minutes on the downhill return walk.]

Blackball is famous for the February 1908 miners’ strike when 7 of the men refused to adhere to their 15 minute lunch break and took 30 minutes in spite of a warning to return to work. When they were fired the local Miners Union came out in support and called a strike insisting the men be reinstated without loss of pay. With all mine work stopping men resorted to sports and hunting and gardening with workers’ unions throughout the country raising funds to support the Blackball families. The standoff continued through to May when the company finally caved in and agreed to reinstate the sacked seven.

The formation of the Federation of Labour grew out of the strike, with Bob Semple a leading figure who eventually became a Labour politician and the 1942 first Labour Government’s Minister of Public Works.

This mining museum was set up during the 2008 commemoration of the 100^th anniversary of the strike. Included in the outdoor displays are ——

—– a group of six miners’ huts and this memorial wheel. The huts are fully kitted out with belongings associated with named early miners. The names of all miners on the coast who died in mine accidents since 1990 (including the Pike River victims) are inscribed on ceramic plaques around the circumference of the winding wheel from a mine poppet head.

Monday 24 March:

In December 2024 the “Pounamu Pathway – Journey to a Land of Legends” cultural experience was opened in Greymouth. This immersive digital storytelling self-guided journey is a Poutini Nga Taihu (people of the West Coast) venture in collaboration with Weta Workshop.

The Mawhera Pa building featuring the experience —–

—– is right near the centre of town, —–

—– and I spent 1½ hours taking in the stunning visual and sound based stories of how pounamu (greenstone) from the West Coast found its way to the North Island and across to the South Island East Coast on pathways via sea and via mountain passes.

From the 1770s to the early 1800s Te Tai Poutini (the Maori name for the West Coast) was the battle ground —–

—– over this rich greenstone (pounamu) resource, with the eastern Ngai Tahu sending war parties across the Alps to attack the western Ngati Waitangi, custodians of Te Tai Poutini.

Tuhuru, “a giant in stature and an awesome warrior” was the paramount leader amongst western Ngai Tahu tribes who defended their custodianship of the precious pounamu. This figure portraying Tuhuru was huge and incredibly lifelike.

You can see his figure’s real size with these other people present.

There was also a 15 minute digital video projection of a day in the life of Mawhera Pa residents where the camera moved around the shoreline (as here just prior to showing the fishing canoe on the right being launched) with children and adults on the beach and planting in their gardens, and with whare and pataka in the background. Archeologists knew the layout of buildings for the Pa and Weta Digital was able to thus create a pretty effective presentation of community activities over a 24 hour period.

I then set off north up the coast from Greymouth passing through the coal-town of Runanga ——-

—– where the “Miners Hall” presented a statement that no longer would the mine owners be able to ride roughshod over the rights of workers. This hall, dated December 1908, is typical of halls in other mining towns following on from the February to May 1908 Blackball strike and the rise of the Miners Unions and Federation of Labour.

The coastal drive north to Westport has beaches and headlands with offshore rocky outcrops for mile after mile, a far more spectacular drive than the road north from Haast. I stopped at several headlands to —–

—– capture the best wave action I could.

I made it to Punakaiki and the Pancake Rocks and Blowholes in time for some early afternoon refreshment before my walk —–

—– and this guy came right up to my elbow with a covetous glance at the ice cream I was enjoying.

The tide was out so there was no action on the blowholes, but the pancake rocks were crisp and clear —–

—– as was the activity in the surge pool where the waves barrel in through a tunnel under ones feet.

The DoC Visitor Centre was under construction in April last year when I went through, and now is finished with a cultural immersive experience attached ——-

—– which tells of the legendary origin stories of how pounamu came to be on the West Coast. Although the entrance way looked enticing I did not have the 1 hour available this late in the day as I wanted to get north of Westport to Granity School before sunset.

I made it to the primary school grounds in Granity late afternoon and could see that the end of the school building had been shortened very recently ——

—– and that huge new boulder seawall protections had been installed to check the foreshore erosion impacting on the school grounds and building. Granity School and Village has been in the headlines several times over the last 20 years as huge storms have threatened to destroy both the school and foreshore dwellings.

It was then time to head a few km up to Hector to a freedom camping spot close to the beach, —–

—–and watch the sun go down while having tea.

Tuesday 25 March:

I left Hector and after some morning photos of the Granity School coastal protection work travelled through Westport heading for Murchison. There were two places of interest enroute through the Buller Gorge —–

—– the first being Stitts Bluff, where there is one-way traffic under an overhang cut out of solid rock —–

—– as best viewed from Kilkenney lookout, and the second being Berlins ——

—– where alongside the roadside café and campground there is this sculpture of a sand-fly equipped with knife and fork, ready for a meal of any café patron game enough to eat at the outdoor tables.

Wednesday 26 March:

It was a dull morning when I set off up a side valley from Murchison that showed on the map a walkway at the end of the road, but what I found was that the walkway was along an ancient water race servicing the Six Mile power station that first provided electricity for Murchison township in 1922.

This now disused facility is six miles up valley from town, and is guarded by a black sheep and two white companions (over at the fence). The water race intake was a 1.4km forest walk from ——

—– the top of the penstock feeding the power house turbine ——

—– to the intake weir constructed above the first of several water falls high up on Six Mile Creek. The water race (leading away from the weir to the left of the picture) ——

—– had a control gate that could be shut down if the penstock flow had to be stopped for any reason.

Inside the power house the generator (in the foreground) coupled to the flywheel —–

—– and turbine (in the background) looked in excellent order, even though the station closed in 1975.

And those sheep? Well, when I came back down from the top of the penstock to have a look inside the powerhouse the black sheep and two companions came trotting right up to me as though expecting I had some sort of treat for them —–

Meanwhile —–

—– a fantail was dashing around the four of us —–

—– laughing at the sheep, “you’re not going to get anything out of him”.

.From Murchison I travelled up to Lake Rotoiti to spend the night at a DoC campsite, and spent a lazy end of day sitting on a bench soaking up the sun while watching swimmers and boaters enjoying the water —–

—— and batting away the sand-flies seeking any bare skin they could find.

Thursday 27 March:

I travelled back down the road from St Arnaud and Lake Rotoiti first thing to the Kawatiri Junction and joined SH6 on its way from Murchison to Nelson. This was the end of the original passenger railway from Nelson leaving 75km to join the mainline at Inangahua unfinished.

Construction started in Nelson in 1873 and reached the Kawatiri siding here in 1923 after stops and starts affected by construction delays, WWI and financial constraints. The one tunnel on the line is a 20 minute return walk from the above siding.

The tunnel, completed in 1923, is 185 metres though granite rock, and was a major challenge for construction workers.

The Hope River rail bridge entrance from Kawatiri to the tunnel has been replaced —–

—- by a walkway bridge. The main use of the line was to service farming communities from Nelson to Hope (which is a few km up the road from Kawatiri) but it always ran at a loss, and it was decided to close it in 1955. This was strongly resisted by the community who had lobbied for many years for the line’s completion south to Inangahua. When a demolition train arrived from Nelson in September 1955 —–

—– a group of 9 women sat on the line for a week in protest until they were arrested and taken away so work could proceed.

After my walk on the rail-trail I travelled north to take the direct inland route to Motueka instead of heading for Nelson and up the coast, and was intrigued to spot —–

—– this sign next to —–

—– these three bright roadside items (I hear you say “not another set of outdoor sculptures?”)

The “garden” was several hectares in size with dozens of weird and wacky “sculptures”, a large number developed from split or shredded or shaped timbers. Examples were —–

—– colourful clusters ——

—- or naturally weathered pieces —–

——- or chunky bits —–

—– or splits —–

—– or spikes.

It was quite a relief to come across a more conventional piece titled “Lean on Me”.

I met the artist in his gallery —–

—– where I asked him about the wall hanging “Make Art Not Beef” of which I had seen in other material elsewhere on the property, and he explained they also have a small farmlet with 40 beef cattle as another income source. The male figure carrying a brief case is not the artist, but a mannequin clothed from hat down in thin dried lemon and orange slices (!!!).

Friday 28 March:

I managed to get to Motueka last evening in time to get a freedom camping spot at —–

—– their Beach Reserve where autumn colours are beginning to show —–

—– as the sun rose over Tasman Bay at 7.45. It was then time to get on the road over Takaka Hill into Golden Bay.

First trek of the day was to Hawkes Lookout near the top of the Hill —–

—– where you could see right out over Tasman Bay to Richmond and Nelson with the mountains of the Bryant and Richmond Ranges stretching across the skyline from Pelorus on the left to St Arnaud on the right.

At the next lookout I discovered the entrance gate to Ngarua Cave Tours so took the access road down the hill a couple of 100m to find I was just in time for the 45 minute 10am tour.

So I kitted up at the tour office (overlooking Tasman Bay) —–

—– to find that I was the only person on the first tour of the day (there were 10 people waiting for the 11am tour when my guide and I got back).

Being near the top of the hill the cave system was dry, which meant that the stalactites and stalagmites were of a different character than those in wetted cave systems such as Waitomo and Te Anau.

They were chunky, forming what was termed limestone coral as individual drops of water from groundwater seepage slowly evaporated leaving the mineral content as dried out small noodles.

Lots of bones from small and large moa have been found in locations where the birds had inadvertently fallen down a tomo into the depths of the cave (there were even kiwi bones). There were smaller bush moa as well as the very large birds (see the huge leg bone on the left).

A highlight of the 300m walk through the depths was the great cavern with its 1,000s of coral and very thin “straw” stalactites. My guide sang a waiata which resonated beautifully in the splendid acoustics of this space.

We exited the cave system via a very steep ladder up through the original tomo where the cave discovery was made in 1870.

Overall I would rate this cave experience top of the three systems I have visited (the other two being Waitomo and Te Anau).

After the cave visit it was down the road on western side of Takaka Hill looking out over the Waitui valley leading to Golden Bay.

Like the eastern side the road is very steep and winding, and it was a relief to see the valley floor getting nearer.

As it was only 11.30 am I drove through Takaka and up the Pupu Valley Road to the Pupu Springs (full name Te Waikoropupu Springs).

The entrance way to the Springs walk was pretty impressive with loads of ——

—– excellent story boards and artwork.

The 30 minute forest loop track took you to two viewpoints, first —–

—– the large pool in which there were three areas of strong bubbling up water —–

—– where you could clearly see the source emerging from the 3m depth to the pool floor, —–

—– and the “dancing sands” pool where it was impossible to get a photo of the sands through which the spring water bubbled up.

Leaving the Springs area I noted a gravel side road signposted Power Station walk – “not another local scheme” I thought. So 4km of narrow dusty road took me to the Pupu Hydro Scheme, originally developed in 1929 to service Golden Bay. Once the Cobb River Power scheme opened in 1944 the Pupu unit was kept serviceable as a backup system until 1980 when a burnout of the generator stator closed the station down. The following year the Pupu Hydro Society was formed and over the next 7 years this volunteer group completed a restoration of the power station.

It was only a short bush walk to ——

—– the power house sitting on the valley floor ——

—— and fed by a penstock which delivers water down the hillside from a 1.7 km water race along the top of the valley ridge (similar to the 1922 Six Mile power scheme at Murchison).

Even the turbine, flywheel and generator (the latter two visible on the left of this photo) were similar to the 103 year old generator system in the Six Mile powerhouse.

So, back to the main road through this ford ——