Off the Beaten Track - Some South Island Road Trips

Malcolm on the Molesworth Station

The great thing about towing our car is that we can explore roads that we wouldn't always be happy taking Tangaroa along.  This has taken us to some interesting places, including ones that we wondered if we would get back from—with our nerves, or the car, in one piece.  We have visited remote and extensive back country stations, roads to forgotten gold-mining settlements and over mountain passes.

            One of our most memorable forays was to Molesworth Station, New Zealand's biggest farm.  This is a route that can be used by cars and small motor-homes of less than seven metres in length—which unfortunately ruled Tangaroa out.  Nevertheless Malcolm was keen to visit the station by car.  Unfortunately this was the year that a magnitude 7.8 earthquake shook the top of the South Island, blocking roads as well as causing damage to buildings, especially in the Kaikoura area.  While we were in Blenheim we discovered that the Awatere Valley Road was closed by slips along the 100-kilometre stretch to Molesworth's northern boundary.  We did go for a drive though, getting about half way before encountering a bulldozer, so got a taster of the station.  We resolved to investigate from the Hanmer Springs end, which we did a few months later.

            It was 26 kilometres from Hanmer Springs, over Jacks Pass, to the Acheron Accommodation House.  Built in 1862 as an overnight stop for stockmen and travellers, this is the oldest building on the Molesworth Station.  It is of cob construction and has a roof of beech rafters, thatched with tussock.  I had been looking forward to seeing the old buildings on the station and was sad to see that they had been damaged by the earthquake and no repairs had been undertaken.  (Hopefully they will be renovated in due course.) 

Acheron Accommodation House

            The Accommodation House marked the start of the 59 kilometres of road leading to the Molesworth Cob Cottage at the northern boundary of the station.  This section of road can be driven in two hours but we took much longer as we lingered—to read information panels, at shelters, at suspension bridges, and at every spot that called to be photographed.  The first bridge we came to, the Lower Acheron Suspension Bridge, was built in 1945 by engineering students to replace an earlier bridge.  It was hard to imagine the days when 15,000 sheep would be driven over the river here.  Pig Trough Suspension Bridge (named for the wild pigs living in a nearby gully) was built by the Electricity Department in the 1980s, replacing two earlier bridges that had washed away in floods.

            The scenery through the Molesworth was wide and empty.  The Acheron River wound through valleys bordered by distant, bare, mountain ranges.  The grass was brown but brightened by wild briar and swathes of purple-blue vipers bugloss.  These are invasive weeds but the bugloss looked stunning against the backdrop of valley and mountains.  Honey is made from it, so it is useful as well.  The briar was said to have been introduced to make rosehip jam which masked the flavour of poison when trapping rabbits. 

            After passing the confluence of the Severn and Acheron Rivers we came to Red Gate, the place where Ivanhoe Augarde shot himself after the contents of a love-letter he had written were read (by German Charlie, the man he had entrusted to deliver it) to all and sundry.  Mortified, the embarrassed Augarde shot Charlie, and then committed suicide.  Augarde is remembered in the name of nearby Mt Augarde. 

Wide open spaces

            Ten kilometres further on we drove across Isolated Flat—I actually thought everywhere on Molesworth was isolated!  At Wards Pass we stopped to stretch our legs by walking steeply uphill to the trig.  With an elevation of 1,279 metres, the views from here in all directions were amazing.

            Finally we arrived at the Molesworth Cob Cottage, built in 1866 as the original homestead.  (The current homestead with associated outbuildings, including an historic woolshed and a blacksmith's shop, are viewed from a hill behind the Cob Cottage but are private.)  We ate our picnic lunch here before starting the long drive back to Hanmer Springs.

Molesworth Cob Cottage

            Another day we took a long drive from Mossburn on SH 94 to Walter Peak Station on the shores of Lake Wakatipu.  Walter Peak is a sheep station, founded in 1860 and still going strong.  Covering more than 25,000 hectares, it runs around 18,000 merino and perendale sheep and 800 beef cows.  Our drive was around 90 kilometres each way and, with our usual number of photo stops, explorations and a relaxing break at Walter Peak, took us around six hours.

            Our first stop was at Mavora Lakes.  These two narrow lakes, North and South Mavora, are situated in a mountainous landscape, surrounded by tussock grassland and beech forests.  It is a magical place and no wonder the area was used by Sir Peter Jackson when filming The Lord of the Rings—the forests of South Mavora Lake became 'Fangorn Forest', while the Mararoa River became the 'Silverload'.  Enthusiastic trampers can trek the 50-kilometre-long Mavora-Greenstone walkway starting here, but we just wandered around the lakeside and adjacent bush, imagining hobbits and elves behind every tree.

            There is a DOC camping ground at the lakes, accessible to motorhomes and caravans, and the area is popular with those who love the outdoors.  Many activities that are not normally allowed in National Parks are permitted here, including 4WD driving (on tracks), hunting, water sports, horse trekking, trout fishing and mountain biking.  The long, narrow lakes are connected by a small river, with the smaller South Mavora Lake being surrounded by beech forest and the much larger North Mavora Lake being more open.

Views on the way to Walter Peak Station

            We drove on before too long though, the road taking us straight towards the horizon, with the high Eyre and Thomson mountain ranges on each side.  There were a couple of fords and some narrow bridges that had fords beside them—so heavy vehicles could continue.  Suddenly, and unexpectedly, the valley was revealed to be a plateau.  A lower valley appeared before us and the road dipped steeply down into it.  Then it was on as before until we reached the shores of Lake Wakatipu.  There were views up the lake towards Glenorchy and across towards Queenstown.  The road then skirted past Mount Nicholas Station, finally arriving at the lakeside at Walter Peak Station.

Old homestead at Walter Peak Station

The TSS Earnslaw calls in to Walter Peak Station

            What a contrast to the empty, open drive—this was like an oasis.  There were white painted old homesteads, including the Colonel's Homestead—rebuilt on a grander scale after a fire in 1977—surrounded by English-style cottage gardens and lawns.  There were jetties and a boat was pulled up on the beach.  There was also a hotel with a restaurant and a bar, where we gratefully ordered long, cold drinks.  Then we sat on the patio taking in the views. 

            On the drive we had only passed one vehicle, a couple of cyclists, and a posse of horse-trekkers, but here were a group of tourists who had come across from Queenstown.  As we sat enjoying the view they all made their way to the shearing shed for an agricultural show and we had the place to ourselves.  In the distance the TSS Earnslaw could be seen making her way from Queenstown across the blue waters of the lake.  Built in 1912, the Earnslaw is the last remaining coal-fired passenger vessel in the southern hemisphere and is a very picturesque boat.  The station began serving morning and afternoon tea to visitors in 1969 and has gone from strength to strength. 

            Eventually the Earnslaw arrived and the tourists embarked for their return trip to Queenstown.  We decided it was high time we left Walter Peak Station too, since it was now late afternoon, so we headed back to Tangaroa.

            Shorter road trips we tackled were through some of the South Island's mountain passes.  Whilst visiting the Canterbury town of Fairlie, styled 'Gateway to the Mackenzie Country', we came upon a statue of the man himself.  Mackenzie (with various spellings), also known as John, Jock and Mack, was a Scot who arrived in New Zealand from the Australian gold-rushes.  In 1855 Mackenzie was apprehended with 1,000 sheep belonging to the Rhodes Station near Timaru.  Station overseer, John Sidebottom, and two Māori shepherds had pursued Mackenzie to the inland pass that now bears his name.  Mackenzie pleaded innocence and quickly fled to Lyttelton where he was recaptured, tried and sentenced to five years hard labour.  After escaping twice from prison, his case was reinvestigated and he was pardoned. 

            Mackenzie returned to Australia and obscurity, but in the South Island he became a Robin Hood-like folk hero, loved for his rebellious nature, his brave escapades and his extraordinary ability as a shepherd.  When Mackenzie was caught by Sidebottom, the Māori shepherds saw signs that this was not the first huge mob of sheep that Mackenzie had smuggled through the pass and on to Dunedin, where they would have been sold.  Mackenzie and his dog became symbolic of the struggle of the ordinary emigrant man, trying to make a living in the new country.  His feats of exploration are now recognised—he was the first European to discover the areas now known as the Lindis Pass, Mackenzie Pass and the Mackenzie Basin.  The whole district is named after the sheep rustler.

            We followed in Mackenzie's footsteps by driving a circuit from Fairlie.  SH 8 looped north and west to Burkes Pass.  At the pretty, gothic-style, Saint Patrick's church there was information about the Burkes Pass area.  Just a little further on, past the Burkes Pass and memorial, we came to Dog Kennel Corner where we turned onto Haldon Road.  The scenery here was amazing—a dusty basin stretched across to the distant snow-capped ranges—and it wasn't hard to imagine Mackenzie passing by, driving his herd of stolen sheep before him.  A short way along Mackenzie Pass Road we came to a small, three-sided monument.  On each face the same story is told—in English, Māori and Gaelic:  In this spot James Mackenzie the freebooter was captured by John Sidebottom and the Māoris Taiko and Seventeen and escaped from them the same night 4th March 1855.  The road then passed the Waratah Saddle, went through Limestone Valley and Cricklewood, before rejoining the main road south of Fairlie. 

The monument to Mackenzie

            Another memorable road trip was Danseys Pass.  This pass links the Central Otago and Waitaki Districts, and stretches from Kyeburn Diggings near Naseby, to Pukeraro near Duntroon.  The pass is named after William Dansey, a run-holder who was part of an expedition through the mountains in 1855.  On reaching the western end of the pass the men became the first Europeans to see the unique Maniototo landscape.

            We drove from Naseby to Kyeburn Diggings, at one time a gold-rush town but now farming country.  Where once were three hotels, three stores, a butchery, a bakery and a school, all that remains from that era is a hotel and the cemetery.  Standing beside the road a well-tended collection of memorials pays tribute to those who died in the area.  An old sign by the entrance lists the charges for interment.  A single grave would cost £1.0.0, though children could be buried for £0.10.0 and a stillborn baby for five shillings.  This was a stark reminder of the hard lives lived by the pioneers and I felt rather sad as I imagined a grieving family burying a baby or small child.

            The early miners had some success digging and dredging for gold, and there was even a thriving community of Chinese miners working in the area.  By the 1880s there were around 600 Chinese working in the area.  They had their own store which was not destroyed until 1920.  Remnants of water races dug by these Chinese miners are still visible on the hillsides. 

            The Pass Hotel was built in 1862 by a stone mason known as 'Happy Bill'.  Tales record how he was paid for his work in beer, at the rate of a pint for every stone laid.  Apparently on one occasion he fell into an empty grave at the cemetery, where he spent the night oblivious to his surroundings.  Now known as the Danseys Pass Coach Inn, the hotel serves locals and passing tourists, rather than coaches and wagon-trains going from the Otago goldfields.

            We deferred our visit to the hotel until we had driven along the pass road.  Because the road traverses a high alpine pass it is often closed during the winter snows but in summer, though narrow and unsealed, (with steep drop-offs in places) it is an easy drive, taking around an hour in each direction.  It is marked as being unsuitable for large vehicles or motorhomes, but we saw a campervan and locals with trailers driving with no difficulty.

            From the hotel, the road wound its way through the Kakanui Mountains to the pass itself, 920 metres above sea level.  From here we had views across goldy-white stretches of tussock, to where the mountain slopes met a distant plain that stretched down to the coast near Oamaru.  We continued down through the mountains until we came to farmland near Pukeraro, where we turned around.

The hotel at Danseys Pass

Along the Danseys Pass road

            Back at the hotel we enjoyed a pleasant lunch, sitting in gardens that included remnants of old buildings amongst the briars and lawns.  As we slaked the dust from our throats with cold cider, we thought about the thirsty gold miners that would have sat here over one hundred years ago.

Information about places mentioned in this post - correct at the time of writing

Walks

• ·         On Molesworth Station

Molesworth Homestead Lookout Track:  100 metres, 10 min, easy

Acheron Lookout Track:  1 km, 20 min, easy

Trig Lookout Track:  1.3 km, 25 min one way, easy

• ·         Mavora Lakes

http://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/places-to-go/southland/places/mavora-lakes-conservation-park/

South Mavora Lake Walking Track: 2.5 hr, easy: walking track (we walked only part of this track)

Places to visit (drives)

• ·         Molesworth Station

From Hanmer Springs take Jollies Pass Rd.  At Molesworth Station follow Awatere Valley Rd to SH 1 near Seddon

http://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/places-to-go/southland/places/mavora-lakes-conservation-park/

• ·         Walter Peak Station

From SH 94 take Mavora Lakes Rd, then Mt Nicholas Rd which becomes Von Rd and Mt Nicholas-Beach Bay Rd

• ·         Danseys Pass

From Kyeburn Diggings take Danseys Pass Rd, through the pass to Livingstone-Duntroon Rd

www.centralotagonz.com/visit/danseys-pass

Country Roads - Jerusalem and beyond

On the road to Jerusalem

A drive up the Whanganui River Road to Jerusalem had been on the bucket list for a while and, on a sunny day in early autumn, we left Tangaroa parked in Whanganui and set off along the narrow, windy but now completely sealed road.  The 79 kilometres of road were built over a 30 year period, completed in 1934.  Prior to this all transport was by river.  The Wanganui sunshine was displaced as we left SH 4 and drove over the Gentle Annie past Pungarehu and Parakino.  In its place mist hung over the river and drifted across the hillsides, giving the place a timeless, mysterious feel.  The poet James K. Baxter described the Whanganui as 'the brown river, te taniwha' and as we drove past the small settlements with their marae it was easy to share his sense of the spiritual. 

            Māori have long lived beside the river.  We remembered the Māori story about Mt Taranaki fleeing from the central plateau after being defeated by Mt Tongariro.  The tale tells how he fled this way, and the deep furrow he gauged out on his journey formed the Whanganui River.  However, geologists have shown that the whole region was once a seabed, and there are layers of fossilised oyster shells between Parakino and Atene.

            Atene, otherwise Athens, was named by the missionary Richard Taylor who had a great influence on local Māori and strived to develop peace between warring tribes and between Māori and Pakehā.  The meeting house here was built in 1886.  The 6-8 hour Atene Skyline walk starts here and there is a shorter walk to a viewpoint, which we thought we might attempt on the return trip.  At this point on our journey the sun broke through and we began to see what was described, by early steamer boat-trip advertising, as the 'scenic masterpiece', the 'Rhine of Māoriland'.  As we navigated bend after bend in the road, the river below reflected the bush-clad slopes on either bank.

            The next settlement we passed was Koriniti (Corinth) where there is a marae with two traditional wharenui, frequently used for cultural tours and overnight stays.  There is a small museum here and also at the Kawana Flour Mill a little further up the road.  This was built by local Māori with help from Governor Grey in 1854 and was already a 'historic' visitor attraction in the early twentieth century, when steamers plied the river.  We were keen to spend time at Jerusalem though so didn't linger but continued on our journey, through Ranana (London) which is one of the larger settlements on the river.  It boasts a century-old church and a marae. 

Jerusalem seen from the river road

            Finally we rounded a corner and there ahead of us was Jerusalem (Hiruharama)—it's church spire reflected in the river below.  We drove into the village and parked beside the convent, founded by Mother Aubert in 1890 and still functioning today.  The sun shone from a cloudless sky and the church and convent buildings were pristine in their peaceful garden grounds.  As we wandered around there was not a soul to be seen, just a serene atmosphere. 

Interior of the church

            Inside the church there was a photograph of Mother Aubert, who was well-loved for her work with both Māori and Pakehā in Jerusalem.  A talented and fearless woman, she wrote books in Māori, English and French, and cared for the sick using a combination of traditional Māori medicine and Pakehā science.  Mother Aubert founded the Catholic Mission in 1885 and the church was built in 1892.  Jerusalem became an important stop-over on the river in the early 1900s when A. Hatrick and Co Ltd, steamer proprietary —as they styled themselves—ran a service from Taumarunui to Wanganui, with railway connections at each end.  They boasted that the accommodation at Pipiriki House could accommodate 300 guests and sported the latest amenities: electric lights and hot and cold baths.

            By the time that James K. Baxter set up his famous commune in the late 1960s, Jerusalem was again a sleepy backwater.  The commune was a short-lived endeavour, which ended after Baxter's death in 1972.  He received a full Māori tangi (funeral) and was buried on Māori land, in front of the house where he had lived.  An inscribed boulder marks the grave.

            We ate our lunch overlooking the river and decided not to retrace our steps down the river road but to continue on to Pipiriki and make a circuit back to Wanganui via Raetihi.  The journey from Wanganui to Pipiriki takes around one and a half hours without stops, while the whole loop takes around four hours.  Pipiriki is where the adventurous can take jet-boats or kayaks into the upper reaches of the river and check out the Bridge to Nowhere.  There are various companies, both here and in Wanganui, that provide river trips of different kinds—including the paddle steamer Waimarie, for those who would like to experience the river much as the early tourists did a century ago.

            As we drove between Pipiriki and Raetihi we emerged from the bush into farmland, and were confronted with a lovely view of the snowy peaks of Mount Ruapehu and Mount Ngauruhoe.  Raetihi was founded in the days when it was reached by river and then over the hills from Pipiriki—the road first came through from Wanganui in 1917.  It still has several pioneer-era wooden buildings.  The road back to Wanganui is known as the Parapara Scenic Highway and one viewpoint worth a stop is at Raukawa Falls, where there is a 15-metre-high waterfall.  Visiting Jerusalem was the highlight of our drive up the River Road  but we also got a taste of the history and the mystery of this special part of the country.

            We continued south, turning at Sanson for the little town of Feilding where we freedom camped at a reserve on Colyton Road.  Between Feilding and Mangaweka are a series of routes known as 'the country road'.  We turned two of them into a loop and spent a long day on a road trip, discovering Manawatu's secret places.  This area could not have been more different from the Whanganui River Road. 

Peep-O-Day

            From Feilding we followed the Peep-o-Day Route through Cheltenham to Kimbolton, which has a cafe in a historic building and two rhododendron gardens, Cross Hills and Heritage Park.  Between the two gardens was a lookout spot with wide views of the countryside across to the Ruahine Range.  We were glad we pulled over here as we never found the Peep-o-Day viewing point, which was supposedly further along the road.  Surveyors set up camp in the virgin bush here as they charted a course to Rangiwahia, back in the 1880s.  Peep-o-Day Point was where they saw the sun rise above the Ruahines.  We were too late in the day to watch the sunrise, but did get clear views in the other direction across to Mt Ruapehu and Mt Ngaurahoe. 

            Nothing remained of the pioneering settlement of Peep-o-Day, except a memorial at a road junction, and the same was true of Pemberton a few kilometres further along.  Pemberton was the original settlement in the area, peopled by pioneers who were to develop the 'waste lands' throughout the country.  In 1886, six Pemberton brothers arrived and began to clear the bush.  Within seven years Pemberton was the biggest settlement in the area with a school, hotel, post office, general store, butcher, blacksmith and even a cricket team.  A few years later its decline began, as neighbouring Rangiwahia began to grow.  Now it is a ghost town.  We turned at Pemberton corner and drove up to Ōhingaiti on SH 1, then on to Mangaweka.

Mural at Mangaweka

Karl Sim alias Goldie

The DC3

            Mangaweka's main street was by-passed by SH 1 in the 1980s, preserving the iconic historical buildings, which are now starting to flourish as an artistic precinct.  One building honours one of Mangaweka's most (in)famous inhabitants, Karl Sim—alias Carl Feodor Goldie, the art forger.  Sim was a talented artist who copied the works of Goldie, McCahon and other notable New Zealand artists.  After being prosecuted in the 1980s, Sim changed his name to Carl Feodor Goldie so he could legally sign his pictures as original, genuine C. F. Goldie art works.  He wrote about his exploits in a book, titled Good As Goldie.  We wandered around the street admiring the murals and the buildings—some still neglected, others renovated—then crossed the road to the cafe beneath the famous Mangaweka landmark, a DC3 plane.  The plane used to be part of the cafe but now displays the history of DC3s in New Zealand.

The Rangitikei River

Information about places mentioned in this post - correct at the time of writing

Walks

• ·         Totara Reserve Regional Park

www.horizons.govt.nz/managing-natural-resources/parks-projects/totara-reserve-regional-park

Pettifer and Gilchrist Loop Tracks:  1-2 hr, easy

Access: 92, Churchill Rd, Pohangina

Places to visit

• ·         Jerusalem

5137, Whanganui River Rd, Whanganui

www.visitwhanganui.nz/jerusalem-whanganui