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March 2004: St Bathans
From Arrowtown we retraced our route back to Alexandra and from there took a left turn northwards again, to stop for lunch at the Vulcan Hotel in the little ghost town of St Bathans. Currently the population of St Bathans is 5 people and one dog. Yes, you have guessed it, St Bathans was a gold mining town and today all that remains is a huge hole in the ground, now filled with water about 60 metres deep. The water of this famous Blue Lake is slowly turning green — the reason is unknown, but may be due to the recent heavy rains. Leila and Nadine posed in front of the historic Bank of New South Wales Gold Office, pretending to count their gold nuggets.
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The road veered south and east from St Bathans on the last leg of our journey. The next stop was at Ranfurly, the art deco mecca of New Zealand, but since it was Sunday afternoon everything was closed. We continued on to Dunedin via the Taeri river valley and the town of Middlemarch.
As a footnote to this Central Otago trip we'll tell you about the famous New Zealand fences we came across on this journey. First there was the bra fence on the Crown Range road near Cardrona, then the shoe fence and the sock fence just outside Ranfurly. One bright pink bra carried the inscription: "Sophie, Quebec". We felt compelled to stop and take pictures!
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Back home again in Dunedin life went on in a more routine fashion for about two weeks before the next trip in the quest to show this beautiful land to our visitors. For Lisa and Nadine this meant more school, and the excitement of a performance of the Southern Hesperides choir, of which both girls were members at the time. Here they are in the school summer uniform and in the choir uniform.
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