Day 5

A lovely quite day need one after yeaster day we packed up and drove back to Nasby to pick up our camper trailer then then pick up some supplies and headed for the Demsey Pass the sign said no caravans or camper vans so that left us wondering what the road would be like.


Teamsters with their wagon trains plying trade between the Waitaki Basin and the Central Otago gold fields used the Coach Inn as a stopover when traveling on to the more remote gold prospecting areas of Central Otago.

The Pass Hotel (now the Dansey’s Pass Coach Inn) was built in 1862, with the original stonework constructed by a mason known as “Happy Bill”. Bill’s remuneration was in beer, and he received one pint for every schist boulder shaped and laid. Legend has it that after a particularly busy day the blithe craftsman fell into an open grave at the cemetery, and slept the night away.

During 1861 the prospector Leggatt found gold at the Upper Kyeburn, and in July 1863 a rush to Mount Buster took place about eight miles from Kyeburn Diggings. There was once a thriving community at Kyeburn Diggings. The Mount Ida Chronicle in 1870 lists the business places at Kyeburn Diggings as three hotels, three stores, one butchery and one bakery. The district was also accused of having six unlicensed grog shanties. Coal mining was also important at Kyeburn, and good quality lignite was worked until about 1900.

and has a colourful history traced back to the 1860's, when it serviced a multi-cultural gold prospecting community of 2000.

Teamsters with their wagon trains plying trade between the Waitaki Basin and the Central Otago gold fields used the Coach Inn as a stopover when traveling on to the more remote gold prospecting areas of Central Otago.

The Pass Hotel (now the Dansey’s Pass Coach Inn) was built in 1862, with the original stonework constructed by a mason known as “Happy Bill”. Bill’s remuneration was in beer, and he received one pint for every schist boulder shaped and laid. Legend has it that after a particularly busy day the blithe craftsman fell into an open grave at the cemetery, and slept the night away.

During 1861 the prospector Leggatt found gold at the Upper Kyeburn, and in July 1863 a rush to Mount Buster took place about eight miles from Kyeburn Diggings. There was once a thriving community at Kyeburn Diggings. The Mount Ida Chronicle in 1870 lists the business places at Kyeburn Diggings as three hotels, three stores, one butchery and one bakery. The district was also accused of having six unlicensed grog shanties. Coal mining was also important at Kyeburn, and good quality lignite was worked until about 1900.