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Adventures: Gold digging and Central Otago paper trails

Central Otago on the South Island of New Zealand, sprinkled with names from my Scottish childhood, was a magnet for me.
URSULA MAXWELL-LEWIS PHOTO
View of historic Clyde River gold miner's home.
View of an historic Clyde River gold miner’s home.

NEW ZEALAND: Central Otago on the South Island was a magnet for me.

Sprinkled with names like Clyde, Clutha, and Bannockburn from my Scottish childhood, combined with the lure of gold, the urge to explore the region was impossible to ignore.

In 1862 two American prospectors struck gold on the mountainous banks of the Clutha River. Word spread like wildfire across the globe. Within a year, the gold rush was in full swing.

As Steve Toyer, Clutha River Cruises guide, historian and owner, navigates the Clutha River he highlights features of what – to my surprise – must surely be one of the world’s toughest mining terrains.

Pastoral river banks soon give way to mountains of massive rocks in the stunning Roxburgh Gorge. The Clutha is wide, calmly majestic, and, like us, soaking up the warm summer sun.

Pointing out Doctors and Butchers Points, Steve docks our speedboat and unloads our substantial picnic lunches.

“The Chinese labourers were relegated to the shady (cold in the bitter winter) side of the Clutha,” says Steve, pointing to the chill unfriendly slate-coloured banks opposite – a contrast to the sunny glow on our side.

http://raven.b-it.ca/portals/uploads/cloverdale/.DIR288/wCrowmwellArgus3.jpgNever have I stood among so many massive rocks, and so little soil and vegetation. Dwarfed by nature, we clamber over boulders, and up trails, investigating ruins of rock ‘houses’ built by the miners. The river is dotted with such structures. Are the ghosts of long-gone prospectors still gazing optimistically from the timeless stone ‘shack’ windows embedded in the hills along Clutha’s meandering river bank? I feel the isolation, the strange stark beauty. I try to imagine the hardships these men (and mules) battled vainly searching for wealth among these ancient weatherbeaten stones.

We inspect a sluice, a steep mountainside irrigation-style ditch laboriously hollowed out to sift sediment, and – with luck – scoop the illusive gold. We try imagining the sounds of dredging when heavier equipment was hauled into the area – until the peak in 1902.

Eventually the 103 companies dwindled away. Life receded to friendlier pastoral lands along other reaches of the Clutha and other nearby rivers…until the 1930s Depression produced another herd of hopefuls. But gold, if there was any more, remained buried.

Descendants of the miners – and sheep – now populate the picturesque small towns scattered throughout the region. Stone fruit orchards now offer them more civilized lifestyles.

Sailing back up the Clutha after leaving the digs, we head for land, and a road trip to Old Cromwell, a reconstructed lakeside historical village site overlooking Cornish Point near Lake Dunstan.

A cemetery recording families claimed by typhoid dating back to 1873, stolid stone churches, a Masonic Lodge, and other assorted buildings turn out to be worth visiting.

I head for the Cromwell Argus building to discover that a newspaper war erupted in November 1896. The Cromwell Guardian started publishing on November 1. The Cromwell Argus retaliated on November 3. The Argus won, publishing a broadsheet by 1881, and survived until assorted area newspaper amalgamation in 1948. It is still published as an advertising news-sheet.

Reading the Argus masthead, I’m delighted. One of the editors is a Munro. I think of my uncles, George, a Fleet Street editor, and Hugh, author of the detective series, “Who Told Clutha.” I smile. I wonder if we had an Otago editor in the family, too.

Now, it’s onward to ride some scenic heritage rail, explore more Central Otago villages…and sample the excellent regional Reislings and Pino Noirs. I decide to trade gold digging and history for relaxing in the beauty of local vineyards and orchards. Each travelling unearths their own treasures differently. Ka kite ano! (Maori for “See you again.”)

If you go let www.centralotagonz.com be your guide.

– Ursula Maxwell-Lewis can be reached at utravel@shaw.ca or on Twitter @YouTravel. She is founder of the Cloverdale Reporter, and retired managing editor.