Gold rush - for the gold towns

Today was a day of exploring old gold mining towns and we found so much of interest that I am going to limit what I write about today. I could write a book of the places we saw!
From Cromwell we headed first in the direction of Alexandra and were almost there when a signboard indicated a lookout over a dammed river. Several photos later we took an alternative road rather than return to the one we had just left and took a look at a small town called Clyde.

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We did not expect to find such a character filled place – the buildings were equally as old as those in famous Arrowtown and not on the tourist trail. I had a ball, taking photo after photo before we moved on to see if we could find other interesting places.
This was a day for detours. Whenever an alternative road appeared I took it! This was how we managed to find Ophir. What a little gem this place turned out to be. The Post Office is the oldest continuous working Post Office in all of New Zealand.

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I poked my head inside and met the Post Mistress. I asked her if she minded if I looked around and she gave me a guided tour. I called Colin up from where he was waiting in the car and he joined me while we were shown many of the original tools of the original opening of the Post Office, the scales, the heavy cash box, and the counter calendar were just some of the treasures.

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While we were taking pictures of the original safe and the posting sorting boxes an Ophir resident came in to collect her mail at the counter so our guide was back to business for a little while before she continued to show off the tools of the trade that were still in use. We were then directed up behind the Post Office to the old Police lock-up. To be incarcerated in such a cold dark lockup would turn anyone off crime!
This town must have been quite prosperous because it has the most incredible suspension bridge across the deep sided river.

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I would love to tell you about Cambrians and St Bathans which are two other tiny gold mining towns tucked back off the main roads and not even on the main map - but space does not allow. It was only because we stopped for lunch at one of the Rail Trail stops that we were able so see a local map that showed where many tiny gold mining villages could be found. The area we covered has miles of what was once rail lines that are now cycles tracks and is called the “Otago Central Rail Trail”. The rail trail stretches from Alexandra to Middlemarch but we only covered a quarter of the distance.
Colin and I walked around the area that was once the gold diggings at St Bathans but we didn’t have our gold pans with us so we came away empty handed!
The white walled cliffs once contained veins of alluvial gold which was extracted with water jets. As the slurry washed down the cliffs the miners collected it and panned the gold from the mud. It would have been hard and dirty work – but rather than be muddy brown by the end of a day’s work they would have looked like ghosts!

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The countryside in this area we covered today is different again to that of the Haast Pass and the tree-less mountains of Central Otago between Omarama and Queenstown. So as well as many pictures of the towns we visited we have also filled our cameras with even more views! This is a fascination country with something different to see at every turn in the road.
AJ