After The Gold Rush . . . Neil Young

Croydon To Cardrona  269 kms

After yet another night in a good hotel we were on the road and drove west on the highway to Lumsden to refuel and then north to Carston where we stopped for morning tea.  We were greeted with tourists en mass as two tour buses had pulled in at the same time and wanted the same public toilets.  They were enroute to Milford Sound.  It has been delightful to just be our group during the day and see other visitors in the evenings.
We continued north and soon left the smooth tarseal for the dirt road through the Nevis Valley.  Most of the road was the standard of a forestry road which I am used to.  In 1862 gold was found here and there is evidence of tailings, water races and miners cottages.  It was a two hour drive to the lunch stop where I took the blip.  I had time to do a few creative shots with the camera.   It was a hot day and everyone was happy sitting in the shade of a willow trees.  We shared the road with motorbikes, cyclists and one 4wd camper.  Queenstown and Cromwell aren't far away and maybe that is why it wasn't just us.  I have found in the 4wd book there were 31 stream crossings  on this road.  The internet is slow in the historic Cardrona Hotel so I will finish this later.
After lunch John our leader thought we had time to do one more short route.  We dropped down and drove through Bannockburn, around Cromwell and up to the Pisa Range.  We returned the way we came up and then drove to the Cardrona Hotel coming in from the North and the outskirts of Wanaka.