"Middle Aged" People and the Old Man Range

Saturday 14 February

The bumpiest road trip! Jonny & Debs took off to Queenstown for the day and their visitors piled into RUSSF and headed to Symes Road to climb Old Man Range to visit Kopuwai/The Old Man/The Obelisk. The road up the range starts off gently then gets steeper & rockier, winding up the mountainside. Many gates as it crosses assorted farms & properties, and we met some beautiful red cows.

The view from the top was pretty special - looking east over Alexandra, Clyde and the Roxburgh Gorge and looking west across a wild, schist studded landscape towards Lake Wakatipu. Kopuwai crowns this range - at 1682m above sea level, this schist obelisk adds an extra 26m of height and there is nothing taller between here and Antarctica along this line of longitude!

Nickie & I went hunting for flora and the ubiquitous lichens while Russ & Louis looked longingly at the back roads tracks which head west into the wilderness! I think Nickie was a bit more elegant in her flora photography... but then again, her knees work better than mine!!

On the way back down Symes Road the views were spectacular looking down onto the Roxburgh Gorge and across to Alexandra & Clyde. The golden spear grass was in full bloom - a very sharp & spiny plant with only one mission… to stab you and draw blood! 🩸 Poor Louis got speared by it and the blood flowed freely from quite a deep puncture wound. We passed a gorgeous old stone hut nestled into the hillside and then stopped in at Mitchell’s Cottage, sheltering from a sudden downpour in this fabulous heritage stone house built in 1880-1900 during the local gold rush. Mr & Mrs Mitchell lived here with their TEN children - I guess you gotta do something to keep warm in the cold Otago winters 😉

Luckily the sun came out again for lunch at Industry then Russ & Nickie went to meet friends who, in true 2degrees of separation style, lived on the same road as Jonny & Debs!

We had a chill out afternoon while I got some laundry done - although I tried to dry my washing but the wind whipped up and tried to blow everything off the line - only the towels held out with about 6-12 pegs each! As it was Valentine’s Day I cooked “Marry Me Chicken” for dinner. Yum!