Confusing Weather

Sunday 19 October

Awoke to the sound of rain and Louis making coffee as the power was on a planned outage from 7am!

We packed up Banjo and were on the road by 9am, hoping to get to Murchison before the rain & wind gusts hit.

Following the raging Buller River, swollen by last night’s precipitation, we hit a few gusty spots, but pulled safely into the Murchison NZMCA an hour or so later. Checked the Windy app and parked in the most protected spot we could find, then set off to explore the Buller Gorge.

Featuring the longest swingbridge in New Zealand and some cool zip wires, we took a stroll around the site which was fascinating - walking through alluvial mine workings, exploring an old miner’s hut, seeing the uplift of the 1929 earthquake in stark relief from one side of the river to the other, standing under the flood markers for 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2021… scary!

They have a zipwire that you can ride back across the gorge, either seated on a swing or laying down Superman style... will definitely come back and try this in the summer with the Fernandis. The poor fella running this was bored out of his brain as it was such poor weather and only one person had booked in all day!

But TBF, none of this was quite as alarming as the level of tat to be found at Murchison’s “Somebody’s Treasure” store - some of the items took me straight back to my childhood! The local pub was for sale, as are many tourism based operations in this part of the world; I would love to have the skills and experience to buy a place like this and create a USP like the old pub on the corner in Bulls which is throbbing every time we pass through - they have great local food, funky bulls everywhere and local crafts & products on sale. This place's only saving grace was LP cover menu holders and a fun CD jukebox.

I got my dog fix for the day from Indie, the 11yo border/beardie collie at the NZMCA and trying to distract the very anxious pup at the Four Square who was watching every move his owner made at the tills, willing her to come out and collect him.

After lunch Louis set off to find some cycle trails (mission not really accomplished) and I drove miles to find the Six Mile power Station walk!

Funnily enough, it was roughly 6 miles from the outskirts of Murchison, but measuring in kilometres somehow it felt further! There was a lovely path up into beech forest then along the race which brought water to the pump house. Looking down from the top you could see the pipe that the water rushed down to power the hydro station at the base, and get a beautiful view of the valley. Following the contour of the water race, the path allowed for glimpses of the river down in the valley below. After the rains, there was a bit of damage to the path - a couple of fallen trees to negotiate and quite a few soggy patches.

At the end of the main track was a little extra pathway down to the weir/waterfall. Here a portion of the gushing river was sidetracked into a manmade canal/race, leaving the rest to thunder down the falls.

Driving back to Murchison there was a lovely view along the valley, and then I was brought up short at a field full of sheep - I thought I was seeing things, but there was an emu wandering up and down among them!!!

Back at the NZMCA we had flat chook for dinner and I got on with blogging while Louis did music. Waiting nervously to see when the forecast stormy weather will finally hit… good night!