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Places around the world

Pancake Rocks, Goldmine, and a Shanty Town

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We leave Westport and head toward Greymouth.  In route, we come across a super cool hidden gem in Charleston called Mitchell’s Gully Historic Goldmine.  This goldmine was established in 1866 and produced over 130 tons of gold dust.

All over the entire property are old pieces of antique equipment.  Sure, some people may think it is junk, but I see it as century old relics begging to be fixed and made operational soon.

The owner has the original water wheel, which is in dire need of some TLC, but he hopes to get it working again soon.

He has the last remaining stamping batteries (crushing machines) in Charleston.

One of the old settlers cottage is still standing, but it is full of more antique mining equipment.

We were able to wonder through dozens of tunnels (with flashlights).  Most of the holes are carved right into the rocks and hillsides, but some are overtaken by tree roots (look at the bottom center photo).  Did the cave come before the tree roots or did the tree roots form along the entrance of the cave?

Many of the cave walls still have gold dust!  And one of the caves had glow worms!  The photo isn’t so good, but they were there, I promise.

The Process

The current owner is a descendent of one of the original owners and gave us a run down of the gold mining process.  He said that it would take sanding down 20tons of sand to get one ounce of gold.  Now that is a lot of work!

The piece of gold in my hand (lower right corner) is 1/3 of an ounce and worth $1000NXD.

We walked a giant loop around this immense property and the trail was marked by the original dolly tracks.  This place is so very cool. I sure hope the owner is able to get some help to restore it!

Beautiful views

We continue on our way and come across some gorgeous views!

Punakaiki – Pancake Rocks

This little town is famous for its pancake rocks.  You may think, “pancake rocks” what, why?  Well check them out – kind of obvious as they look like a stack of pancakes.

They have a really well tended 45-minute track that walks you around the mountain edges to see all of the beautiful formations.

These pancake rocks are really super cool.  I am sitting on a short stack of cakes 🙂

The blow hole was not too active as we went by, but the gully sure is amazing.

Let’s see how much imagination you have….can you see the images from the lower photo in the top photo?

The Pororari River Track

Time to get our daily walk in so we make our way to the Pororari River track.  This is about 1.5 hour hike on a well-maintained trail along the river, through a few caves, under a few trees and ending at a swing bridge.

This is a really cool trail that takes you through several caves carved out of the rock mountain side and through the tree roots!

There were some pretty darn steep portions, but overall I would rate this a moderate level trail.

We end at a beautiful swing bridge.

We stop in for lunch at Speight’s Brewery (one of the boy’s favorite NZ beers).

Shantytown – Greymouth

Our last stop is Shantytown just outside the town of Greymouth.  We arrive just before closing so they gave us a bit of a discount and told us we had an hour.  The good news is that there were not many people around, but the bad news is that we missed the opportunity to dress up for an old time photo, missed the steam train, and missed the hologram room.

All of the buildings are from the 1800’s.  Most have been relocated and restored from other cities around NZ.  They even had a few stables and liveries.

Of course a general store, barber, and theater.

A beautiful, tiny church.

An old stream train.  We missed the last ride by a few minutes, but the conductor humored us with all of our questions.

They had a collection of old engines back in the foundry.

We had some fun at the county jail and outhouse (check Matt out!)

Since Matt was misbehaving, we locked him up!

Old Friends in a New Country

We had met Fran and Grant (sailing boat Te Kinga)  in French Polynesia over 2 years ago.  They have property in the south island and had invited us to stay.  They converted an old church into an Air BnB but we got to stay with them in their beautiful tree house!  You can check them out at Hidden Valley Lodge.

  • Hotel: Hidden Valley Lodge
  • Kilometers Traveled:  175km
  • Total Time Traveled:  3hrs
  • Kilometers Walked:  13.1km

Events from this blog post occurred in early March.  Our posts run 8-10 weeks behind actual events.  Be sure to read our last blog post!

Murchison, Westport and a Swing Bridge

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Our destination today is Westport, but we stop several times on along the way.  About an hour into our drive we pull over at the Hope Saddle Lookout.  We knew we would have wonderful views as we had been winding all around the mountains and through the forest.  The clouds were hanging low and dancing around the peaks.

This spot is famous for saving over 30,000 hectares of forest as the NZ government made an accord with the logging companies.

A sweet little church popped up seemingly out of nowhere.

Murchison and NZ Longest Swing Bridge

We arrive into Murchison which is the home to New Zealand’s longest swing bridge.  It is 110 meters long and is suspended 172 meters high over mighty the Buller Gorge.

We were lucky, there were not a lot of tourists here when we arrived.  We paid $10NZD per person and eagerly headed toward the bridge.  It was a fairly calm day, not a lot of wind so the only swinging came from our own weight.

The views were beautiful from the center of the bridge.

When we got to the other side, we discovered several trails that led to a beach and Ariki Falls.  Super easy walks that led us to beautiful places.  The top left photo shows the flood mark in 2021 – check out the white arrow – it is well over 2.5-3 meters tall.

The Ariki Falls were a really nice diversion and oh so pretty.

This is also where they did a lot of gold mining in this location.  They had a replica of a house used by the miners.

Westport

We arrive into Westport about 6 hours after we left Nelson.  It is a nice little beach town.

We enjoy a nice lunch at Donaldo’s and then head to Carters Beach Seaside (our hotel).  Next we drop our bags and make our way to the beautiful, and very long black sand beach.

We then head to Cape Foulwind where there is a nice hike to a lighthouse.  Yep, you read that right, “Cape Foulwind” and it is very obvious why this town got its name once you arrive….yuck!

This photo shows the original wooden lighthouse that was built in the late 1800’s and to the right is the newer digital, unmanned lighthouse.  I like the original one better.

Pretty views from the base of the lighthouse.

Just 5km down the road is the famous seal colony located in Tauranga Bay.  To my surprise, there really weren’t that many seals – maybe they were all out hunting.

We ended our day with a bottle of rose on the beach at sunset.  I’d say this was a good day!

  • Travel:  210km
  • Hotel: Carters Beach Seasisde

Events from this blog occurred during the last week of February.  Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind live events.  Check out the Abel Tasman Caves in our last blog post.

Abel Tasman Caves

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Today we head to Abel Tasman, which is in the NW side of the South Island.  There are a bazillion places to explore here but we have our hearts set on four places: Rawhiti Caves, Wainui Falls, Harwoods Hole, and the Mussel Inn.

We take our time along the windy road as we enjoy the beautiful views and lookouts making this a 2.5-3 hour drive to get to Abel Tasman. 

Hawkes Lookout

Just as we enter the Abel Tasman National Park we see a look out point called Hawkes Lookout – so we stop to check it out.

A quick 10-minute walk through a forest opens up to a rather large lookout point.  Truly breathtaking views.

In the middle of nowhere we ran across a lovely fruit stand where we picked up some blueberries and apples.  I couldn’t resist taking a photo of their funny tomatoes.

Our next stop is the Rawhiti Cave.  It is kind of in the middle between the Wainui Falls and Harwoods Hole.  They say that this is a moderate hike that should only take 45-60 minutes to get to the caves.  However, I beg to differ.  The first part of the hike is a lovely, flat path that runs along the dry creek.  You cross over the rocky creek to the other side and that is where it goes straight up a small, muddy path (maybe 1′ wide).

The track is steep and rugged as it zig-zags along the mountain and cliffs.  But we all arrive safely to one of the most marvelous caves we’ve seen.

The stalagmites were spectacular with huge curtains hanging precariously off the ceiling.  We had the entire cave to ourselves as we admired the immense beauty of the Rawhiti Cave!

The way back was a wee bit easier as it was mostly downhill, but it was super slippery and muddy.  My motto: slow and low paid off more times than I can count.

Wainui Falls

We left Rawhiti Caves and pointed the car toward Wainui Falls in the Takaka region of Abel Tasman.  The trail to Wainui falls claims to be an “easy walk 1.5hr” walk round trip to the 20m waterfall.

On the way, we pass a field of young cows who were super curious about us.  We also went under a pretty cool rock tunnel.

We were so disappointed to learn that the Wainui Falls were closed.  Evidently, the last flood took out part of the trail making it unsafe.

It was fast approaching 1400 and we were super hungry so we headed to Mussel Inn, an iconic New Zealand place for green mussels.  Many of you know that I am not about to eat a mussel, but it did not stop me from dragging Matt and Wayne there for lunch!  Check out their cell phone memorabilia tree. 

One last stop at another look out and the boys just could not give me a serious photo.

  • Hotel: Beachcomber in Nelson
  • Kilometers Traveled:  420km
  • Total Travel Time:  2.5hrs each way
  • Kilometers Walked: 6.1km

Events from this blog post occurred at the end of February.  Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind actual events.  Did you see our last blog where we flew over the valley in a Skywire?