Lindis Pass Hotel - No Roof at the Inn!

Friday 1 May

After three fabulous nights at Como Villa Estate it was time to move on as we head slowly back to Ōtautahi Christchurch for the end of the month. Jonny kindly took a farewell photo of us with wine & Jimmy in hand; and we shared a Como Villa Estate selfie 🤳 with the man himself - Jonny Chapman - owner, custodian, historical explorer, host and all round good guy!

After our last cuddles with Jimmy the dog and copious thanks & farewells to Jonny, we hitched up and trekked the 3kms back to Alex where we completed a few Banjo chores (gas refill, diesel heater refill, generator petrol top up & dump station) then Louis swam while I did laundry & shopping.

Soon after a caravan lunch we hit the road north along SH8, through Tarras (obligatory stop - cafe was closed so fresh fruit ice cream for Louis instead🍦) and into the Lindis Pass.

At Old Faithful Road we hung a left onto the rather narrow, rocky, bumpy track to the old Lindis Hotel which is now a DOC campsite. Old Faithful Road followed the golden willows of the Lindis River for quite a way, until finally, after about 4-5km of rather bumpy, narrow track we hit open farmland and things got a little easier. We did encounter a ute coming our way on a particularly narrow section, but the driver was likely the local farmer and kindly backed up a wee way then climbed halfway up the narrow berm so we could squeeze through - we were eternally grateful!

Probably not one for the low slung caravans, but with our semi-off road height & dual axle we trundled along ok - the biggest struggle was entering the campsite as the terrain was gnarly, deep tyre tracks and on quite the angle! May look OK in 2d in the photo above, but the tracks were deep, there was a risk of grounding on the ridge down the middle and the tracks were on a serious angle - thank goodness all our cupboard doors were locked!!

We parked up well over 20m from the ruins (as specified), over by the river and went exploring.

The ruins of the hotel, originally built in the 1860s and expanded in the 1900s, are currently being restored, or at least being stabilised by Wainwright & Hickey - I think Marcus Wainwright must be camped out in the other caravan on site - we’ve not met him yet. Marcus and his colleagues Donal Hickey are experts in specialist restorations, especially stone masonry and have been responsible for some amazing projects including the mosaic floors at Dunedin Station and adding names to the wall of honour at Auckland War Memorial Museum. The Lindis Pass Historic Hotel remained in operation until 1951 but has sadly fallen into disrepair since then. Sadly I doubt it will be restored to its former glory but at least it should be preserved in a better state than at present.

We took a stroll to see what there was to see - the ruins are out of bounds as they are unsafe, but we wandered along to check out the Nine Mile Historic Reserve. The pilings for the Old Faithful bridge across the Lindis River are all that remains of the old crossing, and then a gate blocked the path, so we were unsure if we could proceed to Wattie Thompson’s hut (turns out we can, so will try again in the morning). Louis settled into finishing a video and I took my Fitbit for a walk back along the road we drove in and was lucky to witness a beautiful sunset.

As the sun dropped low in the west, a vibrant but misty full moon rose in the east, lighting up the night and drowning out much of the light of the stars.

Burgers in Banjo for dinner then we drained the pipes (not a euphemism), switched off the water pump and settled in for a very chilly night - negative temperatures expected before dawn.