Just after sunset last night we saw, in the darkness, a small animal come out and drink from a puddle near our van. We watched in silence, wary of scaring it away, when a car came up the road, passed the creature about 1 foot away, and the criter didn't flinch! So I got out with my camera and took a few flash photographs, while he was drinking.
It was a hedgehog!
After filling the van with fuel, and discovering that BP stations here have dump stations (very useful to know), we went back to the bungy jumping area at The Kawerau Gorge bridge. This time is was buzzing with life as people queued up to jump 42 metres from the old bridge.
Some were more artistic than others when they left the platform, others had to be pushed.
Some had their fall down to just above the water -
While some went for the full wet experience!
Great fun to watch, very well organised, but no, we did NOT have a go.
We then moved on to Bendigo, an old mining area high in the hills above the Clutha river valley. It was a perilous drive up a steep, unpaved, track for about 6 kms, to the historic reserve. Apart from a few interpretive boards it has been left pretty much alone, and only a few intrepid tourists venture up there. In it's hay day it was a major source of wealth for a few lucky investors; over half a million pounds of gold was extracted in a twenty year period.
All that is left now is a few ruined houses, the remnants of an old battery (steam powered stamping engine for breaking the rocks down) and lots of old shafts. Some of these had grills protecting you from falling in, some were just there! The deepest was 178 m; compare that to the 42m of the bungy jump.
It was a powerful glimpse of the miner's way of life in the 1860s, and much better for not being over protected and explained.
Next stop was the lake front in Wanaka, where we shared some garlic bread with a local sparrow, then enjoyed an ice cream. It's a beautiful town, much nicer than Queenstown.
From there it was a few kms to the Ripppn winery (it was about time we visited one, Central Otago is full of vineyards). Founded in 1982, so old by some standards, we had a pleasant 40 minutes tasting wine. Bought a bottle of a white wine made from the Osteiner grape, one we had never heard of. Apparently there are two hectares of this grape grown in the world, and one of those was at Ripppn wines. Nice light wine for a summer's day!
The road north from Wanaka followed Lake Hawea for several kilometres, before switching back to the side of Lake Wanaka. It was a beautiful drive, with stunning lake and mountain scenes surrounding us.
Our camp tonight is next to Lake Wanaka, just off the SH8. This was the view from the pebble beach at the side of the camp site. We took chairs and drinks down so we could enjoy our starter sitting looking at the view, before retiring to our trusty van for a meal of lamb, mushrooms and avocado pear! Tomorrow we do 'The Siberian Experience' if the weather stays good.
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