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Mike Yardley: Maniototo treasures

Publish Date
Sat, 28 Jan 2017, 10:43AM

Mike Yardley: Maniototo treasures

Publish Date
Sat, 28 Jan 2017, 10:43AM

State Highway 85, the 160km-long romp between Palmerston and Alexandra, is one my favourite South Island road trips, with the striking scenery and hidden treats of the Maniototo at its heart. Colloquially known as the “Pigroot”, the highway’s sobriquet reaches back to when the area was surveyed in 1863 by John Thomson.  The valley was overrun by wild pigs, completely fearless of people.

Fifteen minutes out of Palmerston, blink and you’ll miss McCormicks Creek Bridge. Don’t. Built in 1869, this delicate schist arch bridge, is one of the last examples of the old coach bridges erected during the Otago gold rush. After twisting and turning through the Inch Valley and the Kakanui Ranges, the fabled high plateau of the Maniototo unfurls before you. Prior to the gold rush, flowing red tussocks thickly carpeted the landscape. (Maniototo translates as “Plains of Blood.”) Fires have destroyed much of the original grasslands, but as you approach Kyeburn, you can see the best remnant of the blood red tussocks. 

Loosely scattered with schist rock stacks in wondrously free form designs, the frontier feel to this big sky country is intoxicating, like a roll call of Graham Sydney paintings in 3D. Ambling past Ranfurly, the Art Deco town of the South, you’ll want veer off SH85 for the short 10km diversion to Naseby.  Nestled at the base of the Mt. Ida Range, this pretty, perfectly-formed village needs little introduction. I always feel teleported to Toytown, given its stunningly maintained rose-clad cottages, old wooden churches, elegant stone buildings and storied pubs.  But beyond the familiar, stake out some of the truly tucked away gems.

20km from Naseby, Kyeburn Diggings was the northernmost town of the Maniototo – now a ghost town where the sole survivor is the Dansey’s Pass Coaching Inn. Offering hearty fare, boutique accommodation and a superb bar packed with curios, it’s a compelling proposition with an unmistakable frontier charm. The long and low-slung hotel remains a stirring roadside refuge amid the monochromatic terrain of imposing brown hills.

First built in 1862 as a corrugated-iron shack, it was rebuilt for beer, a decade later. The stonework was constructed by a mason known as Happy Bill, who received one pint for every schist boulder he shaped and laid. It’s a heroic reminder of the history of this ephemeral boomtown,  that swelled in size to over 2000 residents. 2000 feet high, this treeless terrain was forested in places by early miners, who planted trees to remind them of their home countries. One of the best surviving stands of forest is in German Creek Reserve, thick with fine old specimens of furs and redwoods.

Dansey’s Pass was an ancient route connecting the Maniototo to the Waitaki Valley, traversed by Maori for hunting and as greenstone gathering on the West Coast. Local Maori showed this route to a North Otago runholder, William Dansey, as a good pathway to access the Maniototo Plain for grazing sheep.  The full traverse across the pass is a challenging 50km journey, on a narrow and unforgiving  gravel road. But at least do the drive from Naseby to the coaching inn -  it’s a breeze.

Another sublime Maniototo ghost town also requires a slight detour from SH85, on a lonely looping gravel road to reach St. Bathans.  At last count, there are only 6 living inhabitants left – but no shortage of ghosts, apparently. “The Rose” is the most celebrated spirit, a prostitute who serviced the Vulcan Hotel over a century ago. Her enduring presence makes this movie set-perfect one horse town a perennial hotspot for paranormal enthusiasts. The dramatic man-made Blue Lake was the deepest mining hole in the Southern Hemisphere, for a time. 69 metres deep, the huge pit was cleaved out of Kildare Hill over seventy years, ringed by sculpted limestone outcrops. Later filled with water, the abundance of minerals in the surrounding rocks give the lake its beguiling turquoise hue.

Chat to the locals and they swear the lake is haunted. Some believe the ghosts of goldminers can be seen rising from its depths after dark. The irresistible Vulcan Hotel is the only surviving pub in St. Bathans, and one of the oldest mud brick adobe buildings still standing in New Zealand. Room 1 is apparently home to “The Rose”, who was strangled in the pub in 1880. Numerous guests vow and declare they were grabbed and held down in the night, while a striking photo of a cloaked ghostly figure is on display in the pub – snapped at the window of Room 1 in 1995.

Another essential hidden treasure, on the edge of the Maniototo, is Ophir. Pronounced by the locals as Oaf-ah, this pint-sized village ranks alongside St. Bathans, Naseby and Clyde as one of the country’s most authentic gold rush settlements. Grab a walking map and soak up the parade of historic buildings that flank the main street, headlined by the Ophir Post Office, an exquisite stone structure built in 1886, with the unique distinction of being the oldest continually operating post office in the country. Ophir is proof positive of how a settlement that could easily have slid into oblivion is basking in on the back of the Otago Central Rail Trail, which rolls through town.

Tourism is the lifeblood of this gold mining ghost town, revitalising the trove of legacy cottages and buildings, crafted in local schist stone and mud brick. In a stark reminder of the climate extremes, where the summer mercury can soar deep into the 30s, Ophir registered New Zealand’s second coldest recorded temperature in 1995, when the winter chill plunged to -21.6C. It has only been beaten by Ranfurly, which dipped to -25.6C in 1903.

Don’t miss the river-spanning spectacle on the southern outskirts of Ophir: the Daniel O’Connell Bridge. Erected in 1880, this is one of New Zealand’s oldest surviving suspension bridges, towering above the Manuherikia River with its iconic solid schist piers and russet red railings.  When the bridge was first completed in 1880, a whole roasted bullock was consumed to celebrate its opening. Legends sure live on in the marvellous Maniototo. www.centralotagonz.com

The 150km Otago Central Rail Trail, which runs from Clyde to Middlemarch, is New Zealand's first and longest rail trail, which opened in February 2000 and served as the lodestar for the national network of cycle trails that have since sprouted. Following the path of the old railway lines, it can be accessed year-round by mountain bikers, walkers and horse riders. For more information see www.otagorailtrail.co.nz

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