A Tardis of a town.

 February 15th

Had we had stayed on this camp site before? Ian was convinced we had and sure enough, looking back to 2017, there was the camper van parked in almost the same place.

Lovely and sunny warming the day nicely. Into Duntroon for our first excursion to the Vanishing World museum. 

In my head I had Duntroon as a fairly large township. It was not! In fact, it had the museum, historic and still functional blacksmith, historic gaol, a quaint garage and the Flying Pig café, that was it!

But my oh my, what was packed into the small town was incredible.

Duntroon township. That the gaol on the right.

Loved the Vanishing World centre. Many of the fossils on display were from when the district was a vast sea. A must-read is:- Our Story Waitaka Whitestone Geopark. This explains the history of the geopark. Having spent a good hour looking around, we tried our hand at finding a fossil. Ian was much more successful than me!

Top left is of a primitive Baleen Whale. Top right is fossil molluscs. Bottom left, seabed floor covered in fossil shells and right are the teeth of an extinct white shark.

Dolphin skulls

Moa bones as well as round ball concretions and greensand formations with fossils

Within spitting distance was the Gaol, Blacksmith and Brewery Hole.

Near to that we found an old bridge span as well as some lovely ironwork figures of a Moa and Haast Eagle.

See what I mean about this town packing in a vast amount of attractions. Duntroon may be off the main routes but really it is well worth the extra miles to visit.

Lunch was had at the Flying Pig (who thinks up these names?) before setting off for the Takiroa Rock Art 

  This was the very last part of the Vanishing World Trail to complete. This rock art was much more impressive than the last

 

There was one other place to visit, The Clay Cliffs.

The dirt road was long and very dusty. Not much in the way of rainful in these parts for quite a while. At the gate which again was on private land, a donation of $5 was asked for. The cliff was a further 4 km along the road, I suppose walking those 4 k was an option if one felt too stingy to put one's hand in one's pocket but to be able to view these magnificent structures on private land, paying such a small donations for the privilege was well worth it. 

I should have mentioned the dams. Before we reached the Clay Cliffs and a good way along the SH83 we came across Waitaki, Aviemore and Benmore dams, they are all hydro electric stations on the Waitaki River.

Waitaka Waitaki Dam (thanks Marilyn)

Aviemore Dam

Benmore Dam

 Time was getting on, no place had been found to stay nearby. One we did know about was by Lake Wardell another freedom camp ground near Twizel. We stopped almost next to the canal. Yep there is such a thing in New Zealand. It is the Tekapo/ Pukaki Hydro canal, an artificial canal 25.5 km long between Lake Tekapo and Lake Pukaki that takes the outflow from the Tekapo power station to Lake Pukaki power station.The canal was built in the 1970s.

Wardell Camp ground
 

 

And the views on route, gorgeous.

And wildlife