Intercation in Lawrence and a Long Drive to Lake Tekapo

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We had a great night’s sleep in our studio unit above the town of Lawrence but we couldn’t afford to be too long lying in bed as it is a lengthy drive to Lake Tekapo today.

Looking out down on the valley that the town sits in we expected to see the houses laid out before us but a heavy fog had descended and we could hardly see the exit from the property to the driveway that we would eventually have to negotiate.

The weather forecast had rain in it for later in the day as we drove our way north and we hoped that the fog was not a fore runner of this.

The owners of the studio unit we stayed in overnight had not been home when we arrived from Invercargill or when we came back from the pub after dinner.

However they were here this morning and after we packed up the car we stood around chatting while the fog lifted out of the valley.

They are an English couple who came to the town 2 ½ years ago and fell in love with the area and purchased the house,2 studio units plus 42 acres of farmland to make their new home in NZ and were pleased they had made this choice.

By the time we ran out of conversation the fog had fully lifted revealing a clear, sunny sky overhead and it was time we were on our way as it was a reasonable driving distance to Lake Tekapo with lots of scenery on the way.

Before leaving town we took a drive up to the Lawrence cemetery on the outskirts to check out a couple of Gretchen’s relatives grave sites and take a couple of photos.

For once it was Gretchen doing the cemetery bit for her rellies rather than me. We managed to locate the two we came for OK, one easily and the other after realising that row 5 wasn’t just a straight row from one end of the cemetery to the other which was possibly down to the cemetery being increased in size at sometime in the past. It pays to take notice of the map that is usually available near the entrance.

With that done we agreed we should give the old homestead one more drive by just in case the new owners were there as it would be great to hear just what their plans are for the future of the house. And of course this would be the third drive by since yesterday afternoon when we arrived in Lawrence and you know what they say about ‘third time lucky’.

And yes,bingo!There were people there and so we hurried from the car, so excited of having someone there, and as if the people might somehow be packing up and we would miss them.

As it turned out the older man was the owner and the younger guy….well we never actually found out but looking back he may have been the ‘boyfriend’ of a young woman who turned up part way through talking to the owner.

The good news was that at this point they intended to renovate the house and talked about a 4 year time frame, such is the condition of the house itself having been empty and abandoned for a number of years.

At the moment it was all about making the roof watertight and then anywhere else water might be entering. With the clearance of trees, bushes and undergrowth around the house and the backyard they had good room to move and lay things out in preparation for the repairs and renovation.

With the town having the appearance of economic times being a bit more buoyant than on previous visits, the new owners must feel confident in their plans ahead.

Time will tell and it will be interesting to see what transpires in the repairs and renovation.

Leaving Lawrence on Highway 8 we headed north with the scenic drive up the Clutha River valley to Alexandra ahead.

Just on the edge of the town we passed one of those road signs that make you wonder just how long the name of the road will last in these PC times.

It is difficult to find the real history behind the name Chinaman Flat Road although given the important part played by the people who lived and made their gold claims during the Gold Rush years in the 1800’s it is not surprising that somewhere there would have to be an acknowledgement of the Chinese influence in the Lawrence area.

A little further on and we crossed the Clutha River at Beaumont where work on a damaged bridge is ongoing with no real sign it was nearing completion of the repairs.

The highway is flat and an easy drive along the valley that the Clutha River runs through. Either side as you progress north you have mountain ranges, Knobby Range to the right and then to the left Old Man Range which had a smattering of snow on the highest points.

We were in anticipation of ‘the best pies’ in NZ as we approached Roxburgh but were rather disappointed to find that the business makes enough money to be open just 5 days a week which did not include today, Saturday.Thoughts of a pie for lunch at a rest area perhaps at the Roxburgh Hydro Dam were dashed and so we pushed on with Alexandra just a short distance further on.

Rain had been forecast for the Canterbury high country and although we were still in Otago we expected this area was ready for some rainfall as well and the sky overhead at Alexandra had darkened.

We decided to go onto Clyde, the small historic town where the large hydro dam built on the Clutha River above the town, has become a go to place for lunch, dinner or just a coffee and it has a trendy appeal about it. We were a bit later stopping than what we intended after we discovered Jimmy’s Pies at Roxburgh was closed on a Saturday and finding a place with a spare table took us a few minutes.

Fed and refreshed we were off into the Cromwell Gorge driving alongside Lake Dunstan which had been created when the Clyde Dam had been built as the last of the then National governments Think Big projects in 1992.The building of the dam had been controversial and changed the gorge where the Clutha River flowed into a lake flooding many fruit growing and farming properties through the 30 odd kilometre long gorge.

The traffic flow today had been relatively light and we had to remind ourselves that even though school holidays were over there still plenty of Kiwis travelling and we were heading closer to the holiday centre we had left behind a week ago as we drove south.

So it was no wonder we found that crawling along at 60kph behind 6 motor homes virtually in convoy changed our view on today’s traffic volumes as the queue of cars behind us grew.

The road through the gorge is relatively wide but with no passing lanes and the oncoming traffic was steady frustrating other drivers behind us as well as ourselves.

Then we started to notice a phenomenon we hadn’t seen before when the way ahead was slower than should have been possible.

The motor home in front of us started using his right side indicator as if he intended to turn right. But there was nowhere to go on the right and we then realised that this was a sign from the driver who supposedly had a better view of the road ahead and who ‘had the ability to make our minds up for us to pass him’ when we couldn’t see ahead of him unless he actually pulled off the road!

A couple of cars behind us took the risk and got progressively closer to the front of the 6 motor homes ahead.

Despite this action going on for several kilometres we weren’t taking the bait and eventually 2 or 3 of the motor homes did pull off the road to allow the cars following to travel pass without having to cross the centre line on someone else’s idea!

By the time we got to the end of the gorge there was only 1 motor home ahead of us and they turned left towards Cromwell while we carried on up the right hand side of Lake Dunstan towards Tarras at the foot of the Lindis Pass.

Not too far before we reached Tarras we had planned to tick another of those places that the Grand Tour was going to help us accomplish, a drive into and then out of the area back to the highway.

Bendigo reputedly had the highest yielding gold field in Central Otago and there are still some interesting and abandoned buildings in the location.

However we were foiled by a large road sign that stated the road ahead to Bendigo was closed and we couldn’t even get in from the other end of the circuit road as that too had a similar closed sign. So Bendigo will have to remain on the list of places to be visited.

In the middle of 2020 it had been mooted by Christchurch Airport that they wanted to build an International airport at Tarras and that land had been purchased.

As we passed through the small settlement it was not obvious that nothing had happened to this plan and we assume that COVID19 has had something major to do with any progress to date being made.

It was a steady climb up to the top of the Lindis Pass and at 971 metres it is the highest point on the South Island highway network and second only in NZ to the highest point on the Desert Road in the North Island. Despite this elevation it is not considered an alpine pass as it is located in the dry interior of the South Island.

Down the other side and into the Mackenzie Basin the landscape had changed considerably to a rather barren view with little in the way of farm stock until we reached Omarama where the results of some intensive work to convert tussock land to dairy pasture over recent years and then irrigate with giant pivot irrigation systems that have successfully give a new life to the land usage.

A little further on and we made tonight’s choice of dinner at a salmon farm alongside Highway 8 just short of Twizel.Farming salmon and also making salmon available in the hydro waterways for fishermen has also been a successful addition to the economic success of the Mackenzie country.

A quick stop in at Twizel for groceries and wine, just in case there was no Four Square at Lake Tekapo, and we on our way again as dusk started to gather.

With cloud lowering about the Southern Alps we reached the Lake Tekapo township and found the directions to our accommodation in a new development of houses easy to follow.

The salmon was something to look forward to tonight for dinner followed by a laze in the gas fired hot tub on the deck even if the night sky will be covered by cloud. After a long day, sleep should come easy.

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