Waitaki Wanderings

Friday 27 February

Nickie & Russ got a wiggle on and completed their respective bits of study & work by 11.

We packed picnics and hopped into RUSSF to explore the Waitaki valley, up through Duntroon and Kurow to the first couple of the dams.

First stop was historic Duntroon where we scored some rhubarb and a stunning dahlia at the Veg Shed, used the florally decorated public conveniences and had a wander. The historic buildings here are well preserved, but they really do need to find some better mannequins! At least the lady in the prison cell had some pants on this time, but the policeman had overdone it with the eye shadow & rouge!! We paused at Orr Street to pay tribute to Tim, Mairi, Lily & Finn who had hosted us so kindly in Auckland last year ❤️

Then up the hill to Elephant Rocks where we had a wobbly lunch on the super insecure picnic tables (the tables are not pinned down so if one side stands up the other side tips over backwards!!!) then spent an hour or so examining the curious karst erosions from near & far. It is a truly magical place.

The fascinating shapes of the rocks - which once were the sea bed - has been created by water eroding the limestone karst. The textures in places are like honeycomb or tripe and once the harder outer layers have worn away, the soft stone inside is exposed and erodes even faster… some crumbling to the touch. Standing in front of one of the monumental rocky karst towers, you get a sense of perspective of their grand scale, even more so when you look across the landscape and spot the little silhouettes atop the rocks only a hundred metres away. I loved the two which gave heart vibes, but my favourite was the dark taniwha monster rock with the evil eye which looked as though it might gobble up the sheep at any moment.

Back on the Kurow Road we paused to visit the Takiroa Māori rock paintings. Painting was not high in the Māori agenda - oral culture was key, telling stories and singing songs rather than pictorial representations. Sadly, in an effort to preserve the history some of the paintings were chipped out of the rock face and taken away to museums - which has only made the remaining paintings more vulerable to erosion. When we visited last year there was a Māori guy tending to the site, weed whacking and clearing paths while his lovely pup waited patiently under a harakeke for shade... so lovely to meet the same pup again this year as the kaitiaki (custodian) was back clearing the overgrowth from the site. Same place, same guy & dog, almost exactly a year apart.

From here we went whizzing on up through Kurow to the Waitaki Dam, the first of 8 hydro power stations, built in 1934, spanning from Lakes Ohau, Benmore, Aviemore & Waitaki down to the Waitaki River. Waitaki dam was the second in NZ after Lake Coleridge and first of the Waitaki Hydro scheme. Always fascinating watching the water whoosh through these amazing structures and read their history & stats. The A2O cycle trail runs right beside the dam and I was very taken by the two ladies wearing matchy matchy floral cycling jackets!

Every time we come through here the original worker's village is for sale - and we all reckon we should invest in it and set up a commune for retired travellers (with resident physio of course - looking at you Liana de Vries)! Built in the 1920s to house the workers who built the dam, the stone houses look wonderful, but when you look inside some of them are in a right state and one has plants growing up through the rotting timber floor!

Further up, at the top of Lake Waitaki we were able to drive over the top of the Aviemore Dam, explored Fisherman’s Bend camping spot and gave ourselves vertigo examining the dam structure up close. Well, three of us did - Nickie preferred to check out the dam from the roof of RUSSF.

It only seemed right to pause for a beer or a cup of tea on the way back - but the cafes were all closed so we stopped in at the Waitaki Hotel where all the locals were having Friday Beersies on the deck out of gigantic 5 litre jugs with taps on! Nickie and I got a DIY cup of tea from the breakfast station there (loads of A2O cyclists stay here so it's all set up for them) then Nickie had a Speights top up chaser! We had a lovely smooch with Holly, the largest, floofiest, soppiest Alsatian ever!

A long snoozy drive back then late afternoon the Moho turned up bearing Abby, Jez & Harley to join us at Old Bones for the weekend. The dogs all had a sniffy meeting and we humans enjoyed a lovely Friday evening drinks & nibbles, then duck pancakes for dinner - yum!!!