The horse and sulky emerged from the mist and trotted around the racetrack in the early morning gloom. That’s what greets you on an early morning trip to the ablution block when you are camped next to a racecourse. After staying at Richmond, Nelson, for a week, it was time to move on. Gypsy Rover left us this morning to continue on to the Picton Ferry, so we are now travelling solo for our final week in the South Island.
By the time we had hooked the car up to the caravan, wound the legs up, put another load of laundry through the washing machine, and said our goodbyes to the camp managers, the mist had well and truly disappeared. Travelling along SH6 we drove up and down hills through the dense native forest making up the Whangamoa Scenic Reserve. The scenery changed again once we reached the Rai Valley Forest, which is planted in stands of Douglas Fir.
The Rai Valley village has a couple of shops, a pub, and a garage. Many years ago as a young fellow Robin and a workmate did a South Island car trip in his old MK1 Zephyr and had fond memories of stopping at the Brick Oven Bakery in the Rai Valley. It had a huge oven, he remembered, which was filled up with loaves of bread. After all these years, the bakery was still there, so Robin went in for a trip down memory lane. And there it was, the old brick oven, but no longer used. At least the owners hadn’t pulled it to pieces. We purchased a couple of freshly baked pies for our lunch, venison for him, and beef and oyster for me – just delicious!
Next stop was at the historic Pelorous Bridge, a reserve with walking tracks, and a Department of Conservation Camp. Not for us though, as pets are not allowed on DOC campsites. Keeping Muffy firmly locked away, we walked in check it out. This non power campsite is very attractive surrounded by native trees and there is a new amenities block. Across the bridge another DOC camp offered powered sites in a similar setting. We read about the “Bat Recovery Project” taking place in this area. The native Long Tailed Bats forage on the wing, eating small moths, midges, mosquitoes and beetles. Due to loss of forest habitat and introduced predators such as rats, possums, stoats and cats, their numbers have been rapidly declining. Volunteers from the Forest and Bird Society are trapping predators at Pelorus Bridge in an effort to boost their numbers.
This is a modest little one lane bridge with a walkway attached, and is the fourth bridge to be erected over the river, the original bridge was built in 1859. It shook and rattled as the traffic rolled across, while we stopped in the middle of the walkway to admire the river and the rock formations down below us.
Hitting the road again, and before we knew it we had arrived at our stop for the night, the Trout Hotel, at Canvastown. The hotel offers a couple of power sites on a large grassed area behind the building, and there we were, in splendid isolation.
Originally known as Pinedale, the name was changed to Canvastown in the early 1860s when thousands of gold miners arrived in the area, with most of them living in tents. For a short time this was the richest gold field in the country, but by 1865 the boom was over and the miners quickly departed for richer pickings. A conglomeration of artefacts from gold mining days have been put together to make the Centennial Memorial of Canvastown. In 1860 Mrs Pope found specks of gold while washing clothes in the river. Payable gold was found in 1864 at Mountain Camp Creek in the Wakamarina Valley.
A tiki tour up a long windy road high into the valley led us to another memorial to the gold strike at Mountain Camp Creek. This rather unassuming memorial relates the story of the four men who found 18oz of gold in April 1864 and won a reward of 1375 pounds offered by the Marlborough Provincial Council. The Pelorus Goldfield was proclaimed in June 1864.
And to show you just how far we travelled on our way up the Wakamarina Valley, we were “miles away from anywhere”.
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