The Oteake Conservation Park officially opens this week. Andrea Crawford, of the Department of Conservation, has her first look around.
We're tossed around the cab but the high country scenery provides a salve for any bruising. I don't even mind getting in and out to open and close several farm gates.
The air is pure. There's total quiet and space to think.
I'm taking a look at the Department of Conservation's (Doc) new Oteake Conservation Park in the Maniototo-Manuherikia area, guided by Amanda Ware, community relations programme manager at Doc's Central Otago area office.
I want to get a feel for this part of Otago - I have read about it in poems by Brian Turner and in stories by Owen Marshall, and admired it in Grahame Sydney's paintings, but have never seen it for myself.
Doc has created nine high country conservation parks around New Zealand, primarily through tenure review, including three in Otago - Oteake, Te Papanui and Hawea.
Oteake was first mooted 12 years ago in Doc's Otago Conservation Management Strategy. Conservation parks enable a greater focus on the integrated management of recreation and biodiversity protection across large areas of public conservation land, says Otago conservator Marian van der Goes.
Oteake encompasses 65,000ha of mountain land, making a large "S" shape between Otago and Canterbury on five separate mountain ranges - St Bathans, Ewe, Hawkdun, Ida and St Marys.
It is surrounded by the townships of St Bathans, Wedderburn, Ranfurly, Naseby, Otematata and Omarama.
Kai Tahu named the area Oteake, meaning "place of the ake", a shrub daisy found in the park. It was important country for coastal Maori, for whom it was a source of stone, plants and food, such as weka.
We enter the park via Hawkdun Runs Rd, a few minutes' drive from St Bathans. It is hard to believe we're only an hour's drive from Alexandra - the remoteness is a balm; out here there is no rush, no clocks, no phones, only purple shadows on the hills to follow.
A short distance in, we come to the Homestead camping ground, which is on public conservation land adjacent to the park. Here, you can bring your children, your horse and your dog - there is only a water tap and a toilet but there is plenty of peace and quiet.
The ring of tall trees surrounding the camp site is the only remaining sign of the old Michael Peak Station homestead. It belonged to a bygone era - dating to the 1850s - when pastoral licences were issued throughout the South Island high country, creating large lease-holdings such as Hawkdun, Omarama, Otekaike and Morven Hills Stations.
Over time, they were sub-divided and, more recently, provided land through the tenure review process and property purchase to form the park.
There is evidence of more recent human activity. A sign installed under a kiosk by the camp site has been stolen. A search of the surrounding paddocks proves fruitless, though at least provides reassurance that Doc's control programme for wilding pines is working here.
The 1.5km Homestead track leaves from the camp site, offering views of the St Bathans and Hawkdun ranges, Manuherikia River and the Mt Ida water race. The race was built between 1873 and 1877 and, at 107km, is one of the longest in the country. It still supplies water for irrigation schemes.
Another remnant of gold-mining in the park is the 15km-long Scandinavian water race which took water from the Manuherikia River from 1869 to feed the St Bathans workings and is still largely intact.
In the 1860s, gold was found within the park at Guffies Creek and Mt Buster. This became one of New Zealand's highest-altitude gold workings and is visible by its distinctive white-cream quartz gravel pinnacles and outcrops.
Just past the camp site, the Manuherikia River forks into east and west branches.
We drive slowly along another deeply rutted former farm track following the valley beside the west branch of the river.
Amanda explains that the track to Boundary Creek Hut had to be rerouted after heavy rain last winter changed the river's course.
You definitely need a high-ground-clearance 4WD and should keep to the formed tracks (the odd bus has been known to attempt the trip). I recommend passengers hold on tight.
We stop to chat with a horse-trekking couple. They have travelled from South Otago to check the scenery and are camping at the Homestead site. They say they wanted to get away for some rest and relaxation before the park closes its gates to vehicles (and horses) from April 30 to Labour Day. There is still vehicle access up Mt Buster Rd over winter.
We tell them there is a stockyard at Boundary Creek Hut to yard their horses.
We continue to follow the river, flanked by golden hillsides swathed in a variety of tussocks shimmering in the afternoon light.
An end to stock grazing in the park is expected to produce many benefits to the ecosystem.
There is a large body of evidence, including several New Zealand studies, showing that the natural, largely undisturbed vegetation and healthy soils on conservation land benefit water quality.
New Zealand studies show that tussock grasslands can be particularly effective at maximising water yield. Natural vegetation cover also helps to preserve soil fertility and reduce erosion.
Indeed, up to 60% of Dunedin's water supply comes from the tussock-covered Te Papanui Conservation Park on the Lammermoor Range.
Along with the several species of native tussock within Oteake - including narrow-leaved snow tussock - there are many native plant species scattered about, including the threatened cypress hebe, native broom and scree pea.
We watch one of our native raptors, the New Zealand falcon, perform an impressive high-speed midair attack on its oblivious prey. These striking birds are incredible flyers, with their short wingspan giving them amazing manoeuvrability. Falcons need a large range to patrol and Oteake provides excellent habitat for them to hunt other small birds such as skylarks, pipits, grey warblers and silvereye.
Oteake is also home to threatened braided riverbed species such as banded dotterel, black-billed gull, black-fronted tern and black stilt.
In spring, black shags can also be found above the Manuherikia River.
It is an oasis for lizards, including the threatened green, scree and cryptic skinks, Otago/Southland large and jewelled geckos, and Southern Alps gecko.
New Zealand's most threatened fish, the lowland longjaw galaxiid, has been found in Canterbury catchments of the park.
We arrive at Boundary Creek hut, a former musterers' hut built in the 1980s, which has eight bunks and an old-style coal range. The visitors book reveals that more than 500 people have stayed here in just over two years.
There are three other huts you can drive right up to in the park: the Top Hut, the Otamatapaio Hut and the Hut Creek Hut.
The four huts have been upgraded by Doc and volunteers to allow a comfortable stay. In January, five volunteers and Doc staff worked on the Hut Creek Hut on a tributary of the Otematata River, remudding stone walls, installing new bunks, a bench, fireplace and a toilet and tidying the surrounds.
The original dwelling at Hut Creek was built about 1884, probably by a miner, and was later rebuilt for mustering and recreation.
On our return journey, soldiers in khaki camouflage gear emerge from the dusky light. They're tramping though the park carrying heavy packs on their backs, making the most of the challenging countryside for an exercise.
Besides four-wheel-drivers, other park users include mountain-bikers, horse-trekkers, trampers, hunters, anglers and cross-country skiers. The Awakino skifield, run by the Waitaki Ski Club, is in the park.
It's a good idea to allow a full day, or preferably a weekend, to tour the park.
It can be accessed from Hawkdun Runs Rd and Home Hills Run Rd, off the St Bathans Loop Rd, from Kyeburn Diggings Rd near Dansey Pass, from Sailors Cutting off State Highway 83 between Otematata and Omarama, and from Broken Hut Rd from Omarama.
It's a one-hour drive from Alexandra, 45 minutes from Ranfurly, 20 minutes from Omarama and 45 minutes from Oamaru.
> St Bathans Hall and track
The completed restoration of St Bathans' historic public hall is also being celebrated next week, in conjunction with the Oteake Conservation Park opening.
The hall dates from the town's gold-mining days about 130 years ago and the hall's two front rooms were gold offices used by the Scandinavian Mine and Water Race Company and the Kildare Mining Company.
It has been used over the years as a billiards hall and masonic lodge and for dances, movies, meetings and farewells.
One feature of the hall is a mural on the stage, painted by a travelling German artist and restored and featured in a TV commercial.
The foundations were built straight on to rounded river boulders held together with mud mortar, making stabilisation a challenge for local crafts people. Cracks inside and out were filled, traditional methods were used to make replacement mud bricks and the exterior coated with a light mud render.
The hall is one of four buildings on St Bathans' main street managed by Doc and made accessible to locals and visitors. The hall, post office, gold office and blacksmith's cottage form an integral part of New Zealand's history and gold-mining heritage.
It is uncommon for such buildings to survive, as early gold-mining towns weren't intended to last long, due to the fickle nature of gold-mining.
Planning has begun on the next project - Doc will be working with the community over the next two years on restoration of the post office.
Completion of the Blue Lake track will also be marked at the ceremony. The 2km loop track allows people to walk among the sluicings and remnants of gold-mining machinery that literally converted Kildare Hill into the Blue Lake, known as the "Glory Hole".
The track takes visitors into the heart of key mining sites, where they can appreciate the landscape and climatic extremes early miners had to toil in.
• For more information
Contact the Department of Conservation in Alexandra, phone (03) 440-2040 or check the Doc website www.doc.govt.nz
