Old Gold Sluicing

Chicks Road Trip - Day 3, and another one to put high up in the ratings.

We left Arrowtown early this morning to drive through the Kawara Gorge, the road following the Clutha River to Cromwell, then along the banks of Lake Dunstan to Alexandra. Here we had a scheduled a meeting with the biggest shearing contractor around Central Otago who was happy to take the three of us to a large shearing shed for photography opportunities.

Well, for goodness sake were we ever lucky. He gave us a guy who was off work to take us to this area, thinking we were just doing the shearing. Oh but no!! This guy (nicknamed Mouse) took us all aver the place, stopped anywhere we asked, and suggested places that may be of interest. By the end of the day he was talking about "must hurry to get the good light" what a man.

This photo is at St Bathans, a very photogenic place (the Vulcan Pub is said to have a ghost) ....... this man made lake was originally a gold mine. In 1860 it was the deepest mine in the Southern Hemisphere.

Straight from the camera, I must have learnt something yesterday :)

It is flipping miles and miles away from anywhere and our last stop along the way. By this time we were pretty shattered as we hadn't eaten since breakfast and we had been with Mouse since 10.30 am thinking we were going to be away for an hour of two!! Not so :)

I'm going to link you to katey as she has blipped the shearing shed and some of the information....they run 15,000 breeding crossbreds and merino's ewes.

Btw, this station called Stonehenge is owned by All Black Andrew Hore and his father and brothers. Got a picture of him in the shed.

There is just too much to write about.

Rainie