Back to New Zealand……..
Barry, our Motel’s host is taking an interest in my gold expeditions. He suggests a creek that is about 10km away where a new real estate development is underway which he and his wife had looked over recently. Apparently the lots back on to a creek which is in a gold bearing valley so should be eligible for scouting. He adds that most blocks have already been purchased and will have new homes and/or gates on the driveways. He suggests finding an allotment which doesn’t have a residence on it and simply climbing over the gate, if any. “Nobody will mind, if anyone asks just tell them what you are doing and it will be OK, people are very relaxed on the West Coast”. Hmmm……let’s hope so.
Anyway, eventually went to have a look. Found the general area and then a nice cleared houseblock with neither house nor gate attached and drove straight down the gravel driveway which ran to the back of the block and there was the creek, just a few metres away. Walked down, easy access, found an area nearby which had a couple of deepish (dredging?) holes. Some small gold on the edge of these holes but nothing among the undisturbed gravel. Holes too deep to test, for me at least. Collected about 200mg then moved on to New River which was nearby. Found access to large areas of river and associated gravel beds but not a whiff of gold. Not too surprised, the stuff I was panning just didn’t look “right”. On returning to the motel was interested to see what appeared to be a waterspout(?) over the ocean out the back(picture).
Later, on another morning Barry suggested that I go and have a look at the Taramakau River at Kumara. He described some points for access where he and some friends sometimes launch their kayaks. The Taramakau River seemed eminently eligible since it was being worked for gold by a dredge until about 10 years ago when the dredge was put into mothballs. Recently this same dredge was disassembled and the pieces were moved and reconstituted on the Grey River some 20km north where apparently it is doing quite well, operating near Blackball [should be doing very well indeed these days!]. Sounded like a worthwhile proposition especially as “first-day” Creek was out in the same direction and I was interested in having another look at it. So, duly drove out back to this creek and went a bit further upstream. Found traces, then a modest spot which was worth working simply to add to my meagre sample from the first day. Slow but steady progress accumulating tiny specks until suddenly a 93mg “nugget” turned up in one pan. Disappointingly, nothing more of that kind for the rest of the day, only more smalls. [Found out later that I was at Donegal Creek]. After a few hours moved on to the Taramakau River. Access was exactly as Barry had described so I thought I would start with a bit of a look near the bridge (picture) since it seemed likely that the dredge would have been prohibited from operating near the pylons. Gratified to find a medium sized flake in the first pan!. Thought this was going to be pretty easy. Not to be. Nothing in the next few pans, and no more until a “tiny” turned up in about the 10th pan. Getting late and running out of patience, so went home.
That was about it for active fossicking. On the last day we went out to have a look at Nelson Creek, another “designated” area. The idea was simply to do a bit of general reconnaissance with the possibility of returning at some time in the future, Looked like a good enough spot (picture) and is close to a well set up camping area. There are a number of walks up in the hills above the creek, most of which go across gold mining landscapes. We had a look at the relatively short “Tailrace Walk”.
The most interesting aspect was the frequent occurrence of tailraces which had been cut into the limestone with considerable effort. Sue is pictured standing on a short bridge spanning one of these. The tailrace, which is not visible in the picture, is about 2 feet wide and the bottom of it is about 20 feet under the bridge. There seems to be no
significant debris at all in the section of race which we could see, presumably because of the high annual rainfall and steep angle of the race. It would have been interesting to try and follow the race further up the hill to see the site where the original sluicing had occurred.
Maybe next time.
Once again, chasing gold was all good clean fun in pleasant surrounding untroubled by either snakes or leeches. Admittedly not much gold brought home, but rewarding to be finding a little in so many different locations. With a bit more time and energy to spend exploring these areas more thoroughly a reasonable patch or two would have turned up sometime, maybe.
Cheers,
onegram
