Circuits around a missing hill

Only 150 years ago the lake at St Bathans was a hill.

It was 120 metres high and gold mining washed it away. A clever machine with partial suction lifted gold-bearing gravel up high then dumped the spoil elsewhere. All this action left a hole that filled to become today’s Blue Lake.

Abandoned waste and exposed surfaces make a desiccated landscape, ideal for a re-enactment of the moon landing. Alternatively, depending on personal belief system, perhaps NASA’s original was staged here.

Those with tamer tastes might prefer to go for a walk. Two options are available.

The Around Blue Lake Track, at 3 kilometres, is the longer and rougher. It crosses a scree slope and some unevenness as it rambles the hills at the back of the lake. This is the option for beaut views over the lake and surrounding hills and high country.

The only thing is, it requires a bit of rationalisation to get one’s head around our ongoing environmental impact.

Creating today’s highly altered landscape took only 60 years of gold mining, finishing in 1932. They obviously didn’t have the Resource Management Act then.

But the Around Blue Lake Track passes an occasional single sad tussock while being infested by overly gregarious gorse, among other pest plants. No disrespect to Doc: try managing one third of New Zealand’s land mass as they do.

Best case scenario is in another 150 years the gorse has acted as a nursery for native plants and a forest has sprouted, akin to Central Otago’s pre-human cover. Worst case, the moonscape is covered by pest plants and is no longer.

The Blue Lake Loop Track is much more relaxing from a greenie’s point of view. It’s shorter too at two kilometres and takes less than an hour. It’s boardwalked and gravelled and passes a stunner of a swimming spot.

Miners left town when access to the gold became too tough. Apparently gold’s still in the hills but buried deep beneath the Vulcan Hotel.