February 12
Nelson to Moana
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The rain vanished overnight so I rose to a warm but cloudy morning. Having forgotten to bring the bread in from the car, I restricted myself to coffee for breakfast, checked myself out of the motel and wandered into town to visit the market. It was reasonably busy and offered the usual range of food, crafts and bric a brac. Right: Market flower stall |
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The food is more expensive than Porirua although there is a greater range of things other than fruit and veg. The cheese stall offered nothing that I couldn’t buy in Wellington but there was a good bread stall and another, staffed by a German lady, selling sausages and other charcuterie. I bought some for the journey.
Richmond is about 10k from Nelson and is a prosperous town with lots of shops and a reasonable mall. I did manage to buy some local sausages and bacon from the supermarket and some fruit from the greengrocer’s.
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Unfortunately, the magnificent butcher and deli that I visited two years ago appeared to have vanished. I eventually unearthed a good coffee and a bacon sandwich for breakfast, which I ate in the bright sunshine on the pavement outside the café.
The road turns towards the hills and passes through a series of small villages, almost English in style. This is Rutherford country, birthplace of Sir Edward of that ilk, arguably New Zealand’s greatest scientist. It is ironic that he was one of the founders of the nuclear industry which New Zealand now so strongly opposes.The area has always been important for fruit growing but is now also producing considerable quantities of grapes. |
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Wakefield has some interesting old buildings, most of them slightly the worse for wear, and it has a “well-used” look. There is a typically magnificent war memorial and a town hall which has long since ceased to function. There is even a remnant of the old railway line but I didn’t think to go and see it.
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Most surprisingly, there are some excellent murals. The best of them is well protected from photographers by a phone box, a street light and some form of control box.There is also a pretty art gallery, almost French style with its flower boxes and, best of all, a proper butcher’s shop. This provided an excellent steak for tonight’s dinner and some ham for future lunches. (The ham was very good and lasted days longer than it should have without going off). |
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After Wakefield, the road rises rapidly, passing through a few valleys which have enough of a microclimate to encourage the growing of raspberries, and then over a series of saddles until it enters the Hope River valley and then the Buller Gorge. The two rivers meet at Kawatiri, where there is an information board about the ill fated Nelson Railway. There is even a plaque commemorating a war-time air crash. Right: Highway 6 over Spooners Range |
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It was hoped for many years that Nelson could be joined to the West Coast rail network. The line was eventually driven out to a point a little further down the Buller Gorge but, in the 1930’s, the project was abandoned without ever being completed. All that is left here is the remains of a river bridge.
Further along the road, I stopped for a picnic lunch. By this time the occasional drizzle had turned into steady rain so that I didn’t venture too far out of the car.
By the time I reached Murchison, one of my normal stopping places, it was very wet so I passed by on the other side. I did note that the beautifully appointed bowls club, which I photographed last time I visited, was doing a roaring trade in spite of the rain. They breed them tough out here.
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Inangahua is the junction where the road down the gorge to Westport parts from the road south to Greymouth. It is most famous for being the epicentre of a massive earthquake (7 and shallow) which struck in 1968. There is still a massive slip to be seen on the banks of the river but I didn’t bother stopping as it was too wet and misty to see anything. The quake was similar in intensity to the one which struck Kobe in 1995 and which killed 5,000 people. Because of the location of this one, it only killed 3. Right: Inangahua Hall |
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There is an old hall by the roadside which contains a host of paper cuttings and personal memoirs. It is very basic but some of the material is very moving. It is sobering to reflect that if the quake had been near Wellington, the death toll would have been huge.
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Davidson Bush locomotive |
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Reefton is a mining town, firstly gold and now coal. It has a typical hotel, a quiet main street and a few shops. Decent coffee was available but there didn’t seem to be much in the way of good food. The town gained its fame from being the first in Australasia to generate and reticulate its own electricity. The information centre is good, just like many others in this part of the country. |
Just outside Ngahere I came across an old locomotive parked on the side of the road. This is a Davidson, made in Hokitika after the First World War and used in a number of the local mills. It is believed to be the only one still in existence.
By now the Grey Region was living up to its name. The local authority is considering changing the name in order to make the area more encouraging for tourists. The weather, however, has not yet caught up with this concept.
It rained on and off all the way to Moana and I got damp as I transferred my bags from the car into the motel. The view from the window across the lake would have been magnificent – if only I could have seen it. I made one abortive attempt to go for a walk but only made 50 yards before having to flee back to the motel for shelter. After that, I gave up, did some work, and settled in for an evening of food, diary typing and TV.Right: Grey day over Lake Moana |
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| Next Day |