2 February 2015 - Molyneux Park, Alexandra, Central Otago

The forecasted rain again came through the night; the perfect travel weather for the likes of us but not so welcome if you were one of the many car sleepers or tenters camped up beside the lake last night. In fact, as Chris walked back across the reserve at about 8.30 this morning, he counted fifty four camping parties in, and many had already left. Some of those early birds would have been backpacker types seeking casual work at the orchards back along the highway to Cromwell. When we pulled in to check out their “new seasons” apples, I asked the woman on the counter about their labour and she pointed to the dozens of young people standing outside the shed all apparently hoping to pick up work.

Back in town we dumped, filled with water and checked out a couple of hardware shops for a new shower head. On later inspection, after having had no success sourcing a new one, it is evident to me that the one that came with our new motorhome needs to be replaced; water simply pours from the end rather than the normal spray action. You may wonder how it is that we have only arrived at this understanding now after over a week in residence; the truth is that we normally wash using a sponge from a basin filled with water as opposed to showering, all in the name of water conservation.

After lunch we drove the thirty three kilometres down to Alexandra, down along the lower arm of Lake Dunstan. We decided that the aubergine coloured steep arid hills are far drier than when we came through last time, and far drier than land travelled through anywhere in Australia. Even as one travels south of Woomera in South Australia, the blue grey of the saltbush on the red soil suggests more life than the brown residue of dead sage here, although the green of the briar roses, past their bloom does suggest that the earth is not entirely dead.  But however one gauges the life, or lack thereof, which perhaps supports the Otago skink and little else; it is a most uninviting landscape.

We drove on past Clyde, the small town of just over 1,000 inhabitants, which seems to have spread since we were last through. It is here that the Otago Rail Trail begins, and that alone will have brought prosperity into the area to warrant development. We noted the parts of the rail trail visible from the road with some nostalgia, having been there, done that, once with hired cycles and another year on our own trusty steeds, those stored back in Whangarei.

We called into the Information Centre to pick up a tear-off map and ended up spending some time in the excellent little museum on site. Here we learned or were reminded of the early European explorers of the region, of the settlement by pastoralists and the later gold mining boom. We were delightfully surprised by the displays and would recommend it to all.

Amongst the many facts read, I was particularly taken with the eating habits and capacity of rabbits, the real enemy of Otago farmers; the food needs of ten rabbits are equivalent to one ewe. That means that the 20.5 million rabbits killed in 1945, ate as much as 2 million sheep would have eaten. And like the Lord and Earl vilified earlier this week, it was the Otago Acclimatisation Society who released sixty grey rabbits at unrecorded sites throughout Otago in 1865. What were they thinking?!

Here in the museum, as in Old Cromwell, there was much about the lack of riches brought to the most of the hard working toilers of the gold rush; it was the businessmen, servicemen and farmers who switched tasks and built longer term prosperity for the region.

When gold mining declined, miner’s water rights became available for orchard irrigation. The arrival of the railway in Central Otago from the late 19^th century helped solve the issue of transporting surplus fruit to markets outside the district. 6,000 young trees were planted in the Alexandra – Clyde district and 13,358 cases of fruit were dispatched in the 1908 – 1909 season. Orcharding became a major industry in the areas around Cromwell, Alexandra and Roxburgh in the 1920s. Some Central Otago orchards have been in the same family for five generations, in 2006-2007 there were 1,375 hectares planted in predominantly stone fruit.

And in latter years, it has been the closure of the railway that has given rise to a new industry; bike borne tourists. The Otago Rail Trail was the first of many cycle trails that are popping up all over the place now. We had been impressed with the number in Victoria, Australia, but on our return have discovered that New Zealand is intent on giving Australia a run for their money on that subject.

It was only mid-afternoon but the rain clouds were gathering and we were keen to be set up before the forecasted storm arrived. We headed here to Molyneux Park where a small gravel area has been set aside for NZMCA self-contained motorhomes and caravans. There are currently about half a dozen of us here. Unfortunately this spot does not share the same spectacular mountain and lake views we enjoyed last night, but we should be quite safe for the night.