As we left Dunedin we saw a few more of their grand old buildings, they really have a fine collection of Victorians here! Only 10 minutes after leaving our downtown hotel we were into rural countryside again and heading northwest along the Central Otago Touring Route.
For much of the day we were driving through rugged highland scenery, windblown grassy low hills studded with many jagged granite outcrops. The land is primarily used for sheep farming ( I don’t think it would be good for much else!) but I was very taken with it as I was taken right back to the Lord of the Rings – this part of the country was the Fields of Rohan in the movies. The region is also home to the Central Otago Rail Trail, New Zealand’s original “Great Ride”. It follows a former railway line through the scenic heart of Central Otago and is 152 kilometers long Most cyclists take 3 to 5 days to complete the full trail, averaging 4-5 hours of riding per day. We crossed it a few times but the only time we saw a cyclist he was sharing the highway with us!
After about an hour we pulled in to the little town of Ranfurly. It’s main boast is that it has a fine collection of Art Deco buildings. Those we saw were certainly very pretty but Ranfurly is no competitor for Napier! Ranfurly’s other claim to fame is that it is one of the coldest towns in New Zealand! The record for the lowest air temperature ever recorded in New Zealand, at −25.6 Celsius, was recorded here in 1903. However, Ophir ( which we will get to shortly) holds the record for New Zealand’s coldest recorded temperature, which was −21.6 Celsius in 1995. I’m not really sure what the difference is between the “lowest air temperature” and the “lowest recorded temperature?? But it doesn’t really matter because we’ve driven through both towns today when they were enjoying a balmy 14 Celsius!
We really enjoyed the drive, which became even more scenic as we approached the mountains again with their snow topped peaks.
About 15 minutes on from Ranfurly we arrived in the smaller town of Oturehua. It has two must-visit spots and the first we stopped at was the Gilchrist’s Store. This historic building is supposedly one of the best known stores in Central Otago! Built in 1899 this store it really was a bit of fun for a nostalgia enthusiast. The shelves were a mix of memorabilia such as the original telephone exchange, an antique bacon slicer, tinned coffee and food from the late 1800’s. ( Neil wondered if that’s why the coffee is so bad here, we’re drinking stuff that’s been kept since the 1800s!)
Our second stop was the Historic Hayes Engineering Works & Homestead. Ernest Hayes was a millwright by trade. He and his wife, Hannah, emigrated to New Zealand in 1882 and settled in Central Otago, where he initially worked in flour mills. Ernest was a brilliant and pragmatic inventor who began creating tools and equipment to make farming life easier on their rural property. Some of his inventions are still used today!
We walked around the property which includes the old engineering sheds that have been preserved excatly as they were a hundred years ago. Ernest and Hannah raised 9 children in a tiny cottage before they built a much grander homestead. Because of his ingenuity, the house had home-generated electricity and a flushing toilets many years before any others did in the area.
We enjoyed a tasty sausage roll for lunch in their little cafe before carrying on down the road. I’ve eaten so many sausage rolls on this trip, and they’ve all been so good!
The “other” coldest town in New Zealand was our next stop. W stopped at it’s historic post office, which is the oldest continuously operating post office in New Zealand. Today being Saturday, it was shut! Then the road led us over the very narrow, Historic Ophir Bridge; constructed between 1879 and 1880, crosses the Manuherikia River west of town. As was the case elsewhere in the region, gold was the reason many people originally came to Ophir, a town initially called Blacks.
Finally we reached the end of the Otago Rail Trail at Clyde, which is the site of the huge Clyde Dam. It’s a hydroelectricity Dam and we could see the water coming out of the turbine buildings as we looked down from the carpark. The drive from there led us along the lake behind it with the sheer walls of the gorge beside it. This lake had that lovely aqua blue glacier-water colour.
At the top of the lake we were back in familiar territory, we drove across the bridge through Cromwell again! Our drive around the south island is in a rough figure-8 and Cromwell is the centre of the 8. Last time we were here we drove south to Queenstown , but this time we passed through and set off nortwards towards Wanaka. As well as many wineries, this area is also home to a lot of fruit orchards. We passed by the “Big Apple and Apricot” , of course, and also several groves of cherry trees which were in bloom. Too early for any fresh fruit unfortunately!
As we drove up the left side of Lake Dunstan we passed iles of vineyards and made a brief stop at the 45th Parallel Marker – at this point we were equidistant between the equator and the south pole. They had a map and for the first time I saw clearly how far south New Zealand is, at this point we were further south than the southern tip of Tasmania!!
Finally we arrived at Wanaka where we stopped to checkin to the Clearbrook Motel, our location fopr the next two nights. I have mixed feelings about this motel, the location is great ( a short walk to the town and lake), and the space is comfortable with a washing machine and dryer ( you know laundry looms large on a long trip!). However, I hadn’t expected that our big windows and verandah would give us such a great view into the building site next door! And the bathroom can best be described as “functional” !
We walked down to the lake but the wind was blowing an absolute gale so we didn’t do more than take a quick picture and head back up to the supermarket to collect some breakfast supplies.
Despite the wind and the building site, we still enjoyed some nibbles on our verandah before heading down into town to find somewhere for dinner. This was a bit challenging, the prime locations right at the lakefront were all packed but we walked up the hill a little to the Brew Bar which turned out to be a good choice. Some new craft beer for Neil and some very good new York style pizza. The Brew bar also had a few board games for their patrons use, so we had a bit fo fun reading trivial pursuit questions to each other as we munched our pizza.
Back at the motel, Neil headed to bed pretty early. Unfortunately, he has picked up a cold and was feeling a bit seedy. Luckily tomorrow we are staying here so can take it as busy or as quietly as suits him.