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Published: December 13th 2006
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Choo choo!
Aparently it was built in Bristol in 1877. And the steam train too! Once I escaped Gordon Wells, the Just Jade guy, I spent the morning in Hokitika. Bit busier on the monday morning, which was nice to see. I got my 1gb card full of pics transferred to CDs at a photo shop in the town, and posted one copy back to the UK. I had breakfast in a lovely bakery/diner, the most fab toasted cheese and ham sandwich. Also had a coffee here they call "flat white", which is a normal coffee witha frothy top, but not as milky as a late. Very nice. Had more of a walk around the town, popping into the lovely array of shops here. There's also a kiwi animal centre here. I could spend days here, it's so nice! About lunch time I drive half an hour north to
Shantytown, the 1860's gold town. Most of you know of my cowboy fettish, so I was really looking forward to this. It's a great little place, especially with a family. There is a town street with lots of old buildings, a post office, barbers, sweet shop (mmm, some lovely soft squidgy caramel chocolate things), timber mill (reminded me of dad and The Waltons!), engineering (got some pics
The business end
I know this is what you guys are really interested in. Levers. And stuff. for you Doog!), hospital and so on. You can take a ride on a two carriage steam train (more in a moment) to the end of the track and then back to the gold panning. They give you a pan with stones (and gold) in it and show you how to pan. It's actually quite an exact thing not to loose all the gold out of the bottom and the guy had to keep helping me. I got some gold at the end, and they put it in a little bottle for you to take away 😊
They also had a sluicer. In the 1860s gold rush they would use what are basically high powered water jets fired at the rock to wash down into some sluice areas to soak up the gold, which they would squeeze out later. A horrid job, very muddy and wet and cold when the weather wasn't so good. The people went home to these tiny cold shacks, no hot baths and clean dry clothes. Must have been awful conditions. They normally only run the sluicer when they have schools in (the place was almost empty, it's just the beginning of the season here
The fat controller
I even got to drive it a bit and the driver asked "have you done this before". Flattery, I don't care, i still loved it! and most people seem to be going home for Xmas), but the guy ran it for me to see. It used the water from their own little reservoir, so can take a while to build up enough water for the right pressure. The water hit all the rocks and the mud built up and slid down thr wooden run ways, where you could pan for gold if you were feeling lucky.
The best bit of Shantytown though, for me, was the steam train! I know, I know, I'm such a gricer. It's not my fault, Dad, Doog and a certain boyfriends have made me this way, honest! Anyway, for $5 you could ride in the kettle cab up the track and back (about 20 minutes). That was no money at all, less than two quid, so I thought that would be cool. I got chatting to the driver, Jeffrey, about the Bluebell and other similar stuff. When we got back to the station end he asked if I'd like to look around the engine shed (wink, wink, nudge, nudge!). The guard, Paul, showed me around. They had a Glaswegian tender engine, a diesel they used for shunting that needed
There's gold in them thar hills
Me trying to find gold. This time next year I'll be a millionaire... repainting, They also had another old steamer they were doing up over the next ten years and one that was "not impossible" to put back together, but was in a very, very sorry state. They also had a couple of stand up boilers for cranes. When I was finished, Jeffrey said I could jump back in the cab (it's an old Bristol engine) to the station. He got me to start and stop the engine too!! I pulled on this big level at an angle to get it going, and another little brass handle too. Then I stopped it again and he pulled into the station. Jeffrey said if I was still around for the next journey, to come aboard again.... so I did! It was great being in the cab, seeing all the levers and everything to get the train going, and the precision of lining the engine up each time so that people could walk through the cab and have a look. On the way back Jeffrey got me turning levers and things again, putting more water into the boiler so it didn't explode. I loved it... made my day! All for $5... I made a slightly more
generous donation on the way out, as I had enjoyed myself so much. Definitely worth spending a few hours at this place.
After that it was a fiarly longish drive down to the Fox Glacier. Took about three hours, with stops for photo's. When I drove through Franz Joseph (the other glacier) I should have stopped for food, as it was gone 8pm when I arrived and the conveniences had closed. Settled down for the night at the Ivory Towers backpackers place, which was nice enough. Tomorrow, Fox Glacier!!
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