More Clutha River wanderings

When the sun looked like dissipating the inversion cloud this morning I packed a lunch and Dougal and I headed off for a walk, heading yet again on further personal exploration of the Clutha River near home.

Looking west towards Black Peak and Treble Cone, while we walked in hope of the cloud letting the sun shine on us...


Further downstream past Reko's Point, and looking south to the end of the Pisa and Criffel Ranges...


It had been bothering me - just who was Reko? I knew the name and then I recalled he was the guide of Surveyor J.T. Thomson:

He persuaded Reko of Tuturau to guide him from Otago to Canterbury by an inland route. In September 1853, he, Reko and another Maori companion set off up the Mataura and the Nokomai valleys and over the hills to the Nevis and Kawarau valleys. They crossed the Kawarau River on the natural rock bridge and went downriver to the flats above Cromwell. They made their way to Wanaka and Hawea, before Chalmers, who was exhausted, gave up any idea of going further, and the group returned by raft down the Clutha River (McClymont 1959: 70). More on the New Zealand Dept of Conservation website

Thomson was an accomplished artist and I found a picture he made of a spooky crossing of the Mataura River with Reko on the teara.govt.nz web site

As we walked I asked Dougal to consider that there are people that want to dam this amazing river and drown the landscape. I think he had trouble grasping this and I guess age 16 has not given him enough time yet to ponder the losses I've seen...


I've paddled this river in a past life, camping on the way and that was adventure enough. It must have been something else for Reko, Thomson and Chalmers to build their own raft and head off, bobbing along at speed as the craft became water-logged, and not have much of a clue as to what lay ahead. On many stretches of the river it's really hard to get into the edge as boil ups keeping pushing upwards denying access...


Locally so many of us have concerns about ill conceived ideas to mess up this planet, rivers and all that we live on - and everyone is a local relevant to where they live, so in a wider and more global context take some time please to check out the movie "home"on youtube by Yann Arthus-Bertrand. It has beautiful imagery of our mother earth and commentary of our evolution into where we have brought our planet to today. It's free on the web for a few more days [and is a 1.4 Gb download so it is not a short one].

Last week I found some stellar GPS software for my iPhone for about $NZ7 so we tried it out alongside my old GPS and found it remarkably good - nothing like a good day to play with new toys!

Dougal thought it was funny that the map is courtesy of the US Navy - us being inland and all that. This screen shot is of Reko's Point - I wonder if this is where they built the raft, as it's too close to Lake Wanaka to be the first night's camping spot. The green "init" maker is a way-point the phone generates each time it's turned on...


And this week's head's up is to cousin Deirdre's Tininn Lodge site where she has posted photos of her grand daughter Aleisha doing some part time modeling.

That time of year - grab the sun when you see it!

No matter how I try to counteract it I seem to slow down this time of the year. And this year... maybe it's been worse due to the weather, for an early winter seems to have settled on this part of the world.

Yesterday was one of those days though: out-of-the box! So I made sure after gathering up my x/c ski gear and winterising my camper truck [chains easy to access, snow shovel stowed etc.] that I got my intake of vitamin D by going down to the nearby Lake Wanaka and simply sitting in the sun facing west near Beacon Point. I do admit however to making some landscape photos as the light became stunning and tangental.







In recent weeks I've posted about dangers to our rivers in this the South Island of New Zealand and particularly the Clutha [which begins in this neck of the woods right where the above photos were made]. There have been some interesting and positive articles lately in the local paper with regards to the unique Nevis Valley. The Otago Daily Times...

Tribunal: Richard Fowler (chairman), Carolyn Burns and Rauru Kirikiri.

Application: To amend existing water conservation order to prevent damming or diversion of Nevis River.

Players: New Zealand and Otago Fish and Game Councils want the changes, Pioneer Generation and TrustPower are among those in opposition.

Yesterday: Evidence was heard from John Douglas, Brian Patrick, fisheries scientist Martin Unwin, Prof Alan Mark, Janet Ledingham and Federated Mountain Clubs of New Zealand executive member David Barnes.

Quote of the day: "It's a time warp in there." Janet Ledingham, of Dunedin, talking about the unique characteristics of the Nevis valley and river.

Otago men part of film [Got to see this one - many of these fellows are environmental legends]

Popularity of fishing cited in Nevis [I'm amazed and gladdened to note that one in every eight guys in our area hold a fishing license]

Father and son kayakers make impassioned plea for Nevis valley [Gordy taught me some kayaking in another life and so it's great to see his son out there doing it, and also involved in the tribunal and submission process at age 12!]

Lastly this week's heads up is to Robb's blog: well written words on how fear dominates in our society

The Nevis - just like the Clutha, another wild river at risk

In my last two posts I've written about the threat of four new dams, and published landscape photos of the Clutha River. While I gather steam on this one I'd like to draw your attention to yet another proposed travesty of our wild rivers and places. The nearby Nevis Valley - one of my favourite haunts.

Looking across to the backside of the Remarkables Mountains from the Duffers Saddle - the spectacular mountain range that Queenstown sits underneath of...

The first use of the Nevis Valley was as a trail route for the Maori. When the gold rush arrived in the 1860s, two small settlements appeared in the lower Nevis. Now only the family at Ben Nevis Station occupies the valley.

Due to the remoteness of the valley, miners' workings have been left largely untouched and now provide an excellent representation of an original goldfield. These remains include everything from the cemetery and settlement buildings through to a woolshed and the first ski hut.... more>>

Apart from outstanding and unique landscapes, remoteness verging on wilderness, and historic examples of the gold era, the river itself is cherished by trout fisherman...


The river valley is subject of New Zealand's Tenure Review process and in this instance it seems to be flawed... more>>

It becomes even more remote in winter...


Gold dredges left modest pools of water behind...


And the landscape was compromised years ago - back when it was thought OK to plunder the resources leaving a mess behind...


In our quest for energy we're not alone. It'll become the currency of this world we live in, but it seems pathetic to flood our heritage and landscapes for what in the case of the Nevis is a very small generating capacity. Instead we have to embrace technology and think in new ways e.g. Auckland has to be the place in New Zealand that has one of the highest energy needs so it seems it is time to harness the energy in the tidal differences between east and west coasts on-site, so power is not lost through transmission line loss.

The old miners in the Nevis knew about wind energy [vexing as it is these days of huge examples also cluttering up unique landscapes] - these are 40 gal. drums cut in half and arranged on a shaft to capture the wind. This example still turns squeakily...

The local newspaper the Otago Daily Times has published two articles if you wish to read further. Article 1, Article 2

Those of us who have the foresight to see beyond the dead water of artificial lakes need to spread awareness!

Meandering looking at gold mining history and more New Zealand high country

The weather has been so unsettled this summer break, and with this and my son's part time job, we've not done the longer tramping trips I had in mind pre Christmas, however this means we just utilise the camper truck to good advantage and use local weather knowledge to minimise exposure to heavy rain and strong winds.

So a few days ago we travelled an old favourite of mine: the road from Cromwell to Garston, which essentially takes you from Central Otago's dry golden climate, through serious winter snow high country to pastoral Southland province. The route follows the Nevis valley and involves about 24 river crossings - challenging, if not crazy for a car, but not too serious for a judicially driven four wheel drive.

First stop - to catch a fish...


An hour or two later we're deep in gold mining history - this was once a gold dredge pond...




With a weather forecast predicting heavy rain I once again thought it wise to get the river crossing out of the way and camp on the saddle above Garston. This was the landscape we woke up amongst...


Before descending we spent a few hours wandering about exploring the unique New Zealand High Country landscape photography potential before the rain came in again. This first photo below is a Spaniard plant - sadly they proliferate where there has been too much burning off at the expense of snow tussock and soil values. They're unpalatable and the ends of the leaves are like hypodermics...




This lone pine, a noxious weed in this landscape, intrigued me and sensing a photo I hounded it, but did not get the shot I'd hoped for, so interestingly I "let go" of the idea and wandered elsewhere, but coming back the same way I made this "grab shot", and as is often the case when the mind is freed of labeling and preconceived ideas it turned out to be the one capturing the essense I had in mind...


A very youngNew Zealand Pipit, which I think maybe quite rare, but I'm not sure as they frequent the high snow tussock areas which by nature are very "open", and I've never seen one this close ever before despite all the time I've spent in this environment. They can also be mistaken for the Skylark. I did get much closer for more photos, but I like this first one as it shows something of the nature of the bird's environment...


On the descent, and heading post-haste to the tea rooms that I love to have a coffee at in Athol, the track goes past the old and historic Southland Ski Club hut...




I have a thing about the land forms of this part of Southland - maybe it's the contrast to the flat land, or maybe it's because being near The Nokomai there is a genetic link with my ancestors who were born there and frequented the area...


The rain caught up with us so we drove back via Queenstown and got home early to dryer climes. It was the day of the huge and growing annual Challenge Wanaka race, and as Mike a neighbour was one of the helper/organisers he had a drink station opposite the house. The race went on until midnight so we had quite different noises and energy in the neighbourhood for a few hours...

The closer Christmas gets the faster life passes

Lately I've been doing yoga each Tuesday night out at Hawea, and I quite like the 20 min. drive as it's like a wee holiday, and the sunsets from out there are always inspiring on the drive back. But that was just the beginning of a very busy week with John's funeral on Wed. [he died on Aspiring the week before], and of course like all funerals I met many old friends.

Thursday evening it was a NZ Mountain Safety Council Xmas "do", and Friday evening prize giving at Dougal's college where the seats are hard, but the music superb. Not content with this I was out to Hawea Flat on Saturday night to celebrate a young lad's 21st and his mum's 60th., and got a bit of dancing done in the woolshed, and today, well... I'm just back from an art exhibition opening in Alexandra. It was so hot on the return we drove up to Duffer's Saddle behind Bannockburn [which takes you into the Nevis valley], and at about a 1000 meters up it was nice and cool.

An unusual view of the Remarkables from Duffer's Saddle [this is the side opposite to the one commonly seen from Queenstown]...


Of interest during the week was the saga concerning two Japanese climber's trapped near the summit of Mt Cook. I was amazed at the beauty evident in the golden dawn.. more>>