Today has been a bit of a shorter day for us. We left Greymouth at quite a respectable time and headed on the road to Hanmer Springs where we had planned to spend the night at the NZMCA park there.
Not far outside of Greymouth is a large brick tower so we called in to see what that was all about and found it was a memeorial to the disaster of an explosion at the Brunner Coal Mine in 1896, where 44 people died. The image above is the old mine entrance (now blocked off) but on certain days you can still smell the sulphide gases that ooze from the mine. This site was once a bustling township that also boasted a brick works (hence the brick chimney) and a coke (not the drink) factory, as well as the housing for the people that worked here.
It is sobering to read the stories of the families affected by the disaster – many women left with anywhere from 6 – 12 children to feed without their husband and income earner; parents whose sons were killed and so on. It must have been very hard for these families.
There is a statue of Richard John Seddon here who did a lot for worker’s rights after this tragedy.
Once again, the environment, while beautiful, would had been a harsh place to live. There is virgin bush around the area, so sandflies abound. The soil is the typical alluvial type soil – mainly rocks, so it would be difficult to get anything good to grow. The river is swift flowing.
The bridge and buildings are made from hard native timbers although some restoration has been done because it now boasts some stainless steel bolts.
Next stop was for lunch at Reefton which is a quaint but pleasant little town. We didn’t explore here but just had a bit of a break from the mountainous scenery of virgin bush, steep peaks, and many stony, swift flowing creaks and rivers. At one of the laybys on this road was a gathering of about 50 Riley cars, including classic and vintage models, all nicely restored. They were a bit of pain on the road though, being slow and not prepared to pull over. We also saw a few unusual sights such a gateposts made of two upended cars; and an old closed service station with a lineup of rusting old vintage cars outside. Unfortunately we whizzed by too fast and the navigator had his eyes on a book, not the scenery so the photo opportunity was lost.
We continued on from there to Hanmer Springs, arriving early so we have a period to chill out for a change.
Away From Home NZ 