Tuesday 28 October 2008

Greymouth Tramping




In New Zealand you don’t go ‘bushwalking’ you go ‘tramping’! Go figure but that’s what it says in the tourist information so when in Rome ……..
After we settled into our motel in Greymouth we set off to go tramping along the Woods Creek Track which is a 45 minute loop walk through native bush featuring tunnels dug by 19th century gold miners who earned every last penny they sweated for. The walk passes through tailings, past tailraces, tunnels and dams. The method used to mine the gold here differs quite a lot from the methods used in Australia as the miners made good use of the availability of water to separate the gold from the tailings by digging very long, narrow, deep tunnels and using the water to release the gold and force it to the bottom of the tunnels from where it could be retrieved.
The walk was lovely and took us along a suspension bridge, some very steep stairs and unexpectedly a long narrow tunnel at the end. Throughout the walk we noticed many different varieties of ferns and lichens which I took photos of as well as the spectacular timber which grows so well in this climate.
To gain access to the walk we passed through some really desolate country which is the result of timber plantations and also some areas of farming including these rather cute sheep pictured in a setting I though came straight out of an English travel guide.

1 comment:

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