SUNDAY 20th Nov (another trip report from Hartly is below)

Sunday morning dawned slightly overcast but looked like it would be another good day.  Packed up and off to our meeting place.

After a quick chat we were handed our run sheet for the day and off we went.  First stop was at the old Dauntless mine where Scotty gave us a hands on demo of how the coal bins operated to load the trucks, a quick history of the area and operations by Del.

Back up the main road and right into Boatman Rd. then into the Appletown gold mining area.  A short drive through native bush and pine forest, and then moved onto Larry’s creek, where we came across an alluvial gold mine that is still currently being mined.  This area looked like a BOMB site with virgin native bush totally destroyed, and not much chance of regeneration, as there were only large piles of boulders left.  Doing the damage .at the head of the valley were 3 large diggers and a floating screen.

A hundred 4x4s wouldn’t leave this much destruction!

After leaving this area we headed for the PERSEVERANCE coal mine, this was a nice drive in through native bush and up a narrow gorge with masses of lichens of various shades of greens and browns lining the rock walls.  At the end of the road was a large area that had been mined on a number of terraces SAME AGAIN product ran out and no thought of tidying up the area.
Now its lunch time and time to leave for home.

On behalf of the group that where there for the weekend we would like to thank DEL & MARIE for the work they put into this trip. The areas which we covered in Reef ton over the 2 days were something else.

Thanks for a great weekend
George & Heather

Reefton trip 20 November 2005

Saturday morning 8 trucks assembled on the main North Highway opposite the school in
Reefton.

Dell gave us a description on the day’s activities while Marie handed out typed instruction,
very helpful.
After the briefi ng, Dell starts looking around and mentions the dreaded trip report!! “Hartley, as
you are the only Nissan on the trip, you can do the report.
Dell led off heading through the town with a detour to the hospital nurse’s home as someone
wonted to look at.
Back to the Main Road turned right as if heading to Graymouth. Cross over the bridge and
turned left into Rosstown and followed a track up to the look out above Reefton. Great view
of the valley looking north. Dell give a talk on various points of interest about Reefton and the
surrounding area.
Continued down the track to Harwood road pass the digger training school equipment sheds
on our left. Turned right at the end of the road, then followed a track through forest and back
to the main road. Turned left and headed to Snow river road. Continued to Hukawai farm
road, turned on to a forestry track through native lush and Radiata pine. We came to Reefton
airport! Airstrip with tar sealed runway! In the middle of a forest. Further up the track we came
to an old skid site. Stopped to look at an abandoned Leyland hauler on the back of a truck
(Nissan).
Turned left to follow the track back to the main track. Turned right and followed the river
though native bush. Pass an old remains of the Snowy river power station on our left over the
river. This power station supplied power for the stamping battery up Snowy river. Continued
up the valley, until we came to a track on our right. This took us thought more native bush and
some eucalyptus trees. Track was quite rough in places, with several small creeks to cross.
One had a plank bridge. Came out on to farm land by the upper Grey River. This was our
lunch stop.
After lunch drove down the farm land where a massive land slide come down from a gully on
the opposite side of the river and blocked off the fl ow of the river, fl ooding the river fl ats.
Returned back along the track to a clearing where Dell turned left through a very wet piece
of ground. Continued along the track back to the turn off and header back to the main road.
Another left hand turn travelled down to totara fl at.
On to Granville road followed the main track to a cleaning, where Dell turned and started to
back up a sidetrack as far as he could go, we like sheep followed.
At this point Dell and Marie told us this was the track to “half ounce gully”, where gold had
been mined. The mining company removed what gold they could and removed their equipment.
Off we went for a walk to the gully about 10 minutes.
Mining company had “tired” to return the gully back to its original stat. On the opposite side of
the gully you could see where they had cut shafts into the bank. Walked back to the tracks,
Drove down to the main track turned left and drove through some more pine and native bush,
coming out on to farm land. As we near the farm buildings, along the fence abandoned mining
equipment lay about. At this point the convoy suddenly came to a stop. This is where our trip
leaders day fell a part. Dropped the left front wheel in to a very wet area.
While looking at the old equipment, required a pull out. Bit of entertainment for the locals
working at the sheds. “What the hell are those dumb townies doing”?
Arrived in the farm yard, this was afternoon tea break.
Dell thanked the landowner.
At this point I left the trip and returned to Reefton.

Thank you Dell and Marie for a great weekend. My passenger. Graham thoroughly enjoyed
the trip.
Hartley Patience