Cromwell - 26 December 2011 - 2 January 2012

Uncle Roddus Holiday Adventures.

This year, for the holiday period, Mrs. Roddus and I got to spend several days down in Cromwell with her family and we got to play tourists for a change. There is plenty to see and do down there and the week passed very quickly.
Heading off early on Boxing day, we took the inland scenic route from home with our first rest stop at Geraldine before heading on to Fairlie, where we had an early picnic lunch. Another short rest stop at Tekapo for ice cream then onto Lake Pukakai where we stopped to admire Aoraki on a wonderfully fine day. The next stop was the Salmon Farm at Wairepo, where we enjoyed feeding the salmon and purchased a nice large slab of salmon to take with us to Cromwell. Our last stop before our destination was Omarama, where there is a fabulous antique and curio store with lots of interesting old books, one of Mrs. Roddus's favorite shops and I managed to find an interesting book for myself. We arrived at Cromwell in the mid afternoon to very hot temperatures and soon after unpacking the car at the Mother-In-laws, spending some time catching up with her, it was off the the Brother-In-Laws for a nice dip in his pool.
Our first excursion out while on holiday was to take a drive to see Alexander, which gave me the opportunity to see the Clyde Dam, after which we went for a short womble round the Beautiful and historic gold mining town of Clyde. One icream later we were back on the road to Alexander, where the Rail Trail Mountain bike trail begins. Alexander is a lovely town, but was a little disappointing after Clyde and apart from looking at a few shops(most of which were still closed for the holidays) a big book fair and a coffee, we didn't stay too long. Then back to Cromwell to hide in the swimming pool as the temperature at Alex was 34C.
The following day was a lazy day, reading and relaxing and swimming and going for coffee, but later in the day when things cooled off I went for a walk up the side of the hill beside lake Dunstan, overlooking Cromwell, to enjoy the rock formations and the views over the lake and township.
Day Four, I was gonna go tramping. My intention was to drive too Queenstown and Climb Ben Lomond, behind Queenstown. I had had another intention to do a walk up Wye Creek, but that was going to take too long to do in one day and I had no gear for overnight tramping. After getting to Queenstown but not finding the start of the track where it said in my tramping book, I finally located the start but then saw that the walking time up and back wasn't going to allow me to get back to Cromwell in time to pick up Mrs. Roddus and her Mum, as we were going out for dinner and a movie in Arrowtown. Also I decided it was going to be much too hot to climb 1300M that day. When I got back to Cromwell, I decided to fill in the rest of the afternoon with a short walk around the old gold mining sluicing at Bannockburn, and what an interesting little trip that was.
Day 5, I took Mrs Roddus for a drive into have a look at Skippers canyon. A spectacular place and a very hair raising road into this amazing old gold mining site. Took quite a while to drive in with plenty of stops for photos and then a short walk and a picnic before heading out again. I won't say too much about it here but let some of my photos show a bit of what it was like. After leaving Skippers Road, we decided to pop up the the Cardrona Ski field to enjoy the views, probably the best access road to any ski field in NZ.
New Years Eve and Mrs Roddus was helping her mother unpack her house after moving down to Cromwell only a couple of months before, to escape the continuing earthquakes Christchurch is still having(apparently 9427 shakes since the big on of Sept 4 2010). Uncle Roddus decided to fill in the morning by visiting the old gold mining site on the Kawarau River, a spot I have driven past many times over the years but never had the opportunity to stop. For a cheap $20 I got to do a self guided tour around the old working and a bit of gold panning at the end. Filled in the morning nicely. The afternoon was spent enjoying the old building and a coffee in old Cromwell town with Mrs. Roddus before heading out for a Thai Meal at a local restaurant, where I ordered a medium hot pork chili meal that nearly took my head off and had me sweating like a triathlete. I would hate to try one of their hot meals. The last few hours of the year were spent with the rest of the In-Laws playing Cranium before retiring soon after midnight as we were going to head off early and go to Dunedin.
New Years Day we were off early as we wanted to get to Dunedin early enought to book a ride on the afternoons Taieri Gorge Rail trip. Aftere the loveley scenic drive through the wonderful rocky landscape on the otherside of Alexander, We stopped at the lovely town of Lawrence, where we were suppose to have breakfast, but the cafe that had been reccommended was closed down, so after a cuppa and a look at some of the very cool buildings, we continued on to Dunedin, where we managed to get tickets for that afternoons train trip. January 2nd was time to go home.
Any how, enough of my dribble, please enjoy some photos from our travels that will give a much better insght into what we saw.

Uncle Roddus at Lake Pukaki on Boxing day, with Aoraki in the distance.

Salmon feeding frenzy as we throw in the pallets they gave us to feed them.

Uncle Roddus by the Clyde Dam which was completed in the late 80s or early 90s and helps form Lake Dunstan.

Main Street in the historic and picturesque town of Clyde, just below the dam.

The Clyde Dam end of Lake Dunstan.

This very cool clock is built on the side of the hill above Alexander.

The very cool old bridge over the Clutha River in Alexander.

This shot was taken on my small walk on the hills above Cromwell. The ground is very very dry, almost desert like up here and the small plants are thyme, so there was a nice strong oder up there. Looking at this landscape I felt like I was in some western movie and expected to see some desperado's hiding amongst the rocks.

A great shot of The Cromwell township. The curving waterway is the Kawarau River where it meets the Clutha. Before the Dam, this junction use to be a deep gorge with Old Cromwell town built on land now under water, near the original rivers edge. I remember seeing the old Cromwell bridge, which is now 10m under water, right in front of me here,  when they were starting to fill the lake back in 91'.

More cool rock formations.

I could tell people I was on Mars(I think the blue sky might give it away).

The Bannockburn sluicing. The landscape here was drastically altered by washing away the soils in the search for gold. This area and others we explored were the scenes of the great Otago Gold Rush of the early 1860s. Another landscape that made me think of Western movies.

More of the Bannockburn gold sluicing.

This was a man made water race.

he remnants o Stewart Town, above the Bannockburn Sluicing.

Quite incredible the damage they did with giant water blasters and this was before the days of electric pumps.

Watch out for Orcs.

Looking back up the sluiced valley from the photo above.

A shot of the vast area sluiced.

CBD, Arrowtown.

A town of hardened criminals.

The warning sign for Skippers Road.

The area behind Queenstown, from near Skippers Road.

The Drive into Skippers.

Spectacular rock formations and hills

More Hills and rocks from Skippers Road.

great shot of the Shotover River from Skippers Road.

Down in the Shotover River Bed, note the road cut into the cliffs.

Rockface.

Shotover River.

This is the bridge from where loony people bungy on the Shotover.

The big scare opposite is where the old timers sluiced for gold on the Shotover River back in the 1860s.

Skippers Bridge, which appears to be another place where loonys jump off.

A wonderful camping spot, to which we will be returning to spend some more time one day.

The old Aurum Station House which had been restored as an historic place.

The restored schoolhouse.

Another lovely shot of the Shotover River. We didn't see the Shotover Jet operating.

But we did see these guys on the way back out. A must do next time.

I think this is called Castle rock, although from other angles it could be called Penis Rock. That is Skippers Road below it.

The views from Cardrona.

This is the entrance to the old gold fields on the Kawarau river.

A nice shot of the Kawarau looking towards Cromwell.

This is Chinatown in the gold fields, these huts were re-created for a movie back in the early 90s of which I can't remember the title, but the lady at reception said it was pretty boring. I believe that this particular area was the site if the first gold finding in Otago and was mined at different levels and times upto the 1920s.

More China town.

Another shot of the Kawarau River looking towards Queenstown.

One of the water Cannons used for sluicing.

Battery used for crushing rock to extract gold.

A shot of old Cromwell, these buildings were relocated and restored when to lower township was flooded by the Dam.

Old Cromwell.

Dunedin Railway Station and the Tairei Gorge Train.

This Photo and the rest that follow were taken from the train on the upper reaches of the Tairei River Gorge before reaching Pukerangi from where the train heads back to Dunedin. The land above this beautiful gorge is quite flat, very dry looking with lots of rock outcrops, but you wouldn't know it when in the Gorge, it looks so different.

Murder Junkies - Feed My Sleaze (USA 1995)

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

I had been aware of Bomp Records for many years, mainly through their distribution of the "Pebbles Series" 60s Garage Compilations, but later through the excellent "Straight Outta Burbank" 25th anniversary double set which I had got from Emusic several years ago. Recently checking out their web site and online shop, I found that they were selling 5CD bundles of CDs for US$10. They picked the CDs, so their was a chance that they might be pretty crappy, but as I knew some of the artists and types of music in their roster I thought that for the price it was worth the risk and I might pick up some real gems. They had several different bundles covering different styles covered by the Alive Label, which they distributed and well as one actual Bomp bundle and so I ordered 5 Bundles for a total of 25CDs for just over $100NZ incl. package and post.

Murder Junkies is my first review of this bundle of CDs and as the name implies this definitely ain't easy listening and with song titles like "Stiff Cold Fuck", "Waking up in a Pool Of Piss" and  "Jism On The Cross", these guys aren't to serious. Balls out Garage Rock/Punk, think "A Fistfull Of Rock N' Roll"  and Zodiac Mindwarp crossed with Anti-Nowhere League. Pretty coarse vocals and average riffs but some nice solos and  a couple of stronger songs in "Stiff Cold..." and the closing track, but otherwise fails to really captivate me. Clocking in at just over 18 minutes for 7 songs pretty much makes this an EP. Rating 2.5/5.

I almost forgot to mention that these guys were originally a backing band for the extremely sick and twisted GG Allin and so have dwelt in the very lowest pits of Rock N' Roll depravity and they truly sound like it.

Paul McCartney - Back In The World (2002)

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

Had this playing on the ipod for a couple of weeks, a couple of months back and must say that I really enjoyed it. And why wouldn't I, as I really dig the Beatles and I also have enjoyed some of Paul's solo stuff as well as Wings. Pretty much a hits set with the later excellent "Calico Skies" thrown in as well. All the songs are played pretty straight by an excellent band and being the first Live set I have heard of this material, it was a most enjoyable experience to hear these songs that I grew up with and are etched in my subconscious. Hearing probably 30,000 Mexicans singing along to "Hey Jude" in the 21st Century brings a lump to my throat for the shear power and longevity of that song. I would love to see Paul and band play a concert of this material in person, even though it is very polished and commercial but the songs, especially the Beatles material, is just so awesome. Who else would we want to see playing this stuff in the 21st Century. A Rolddus rating of 4.5/5

Lucretia Tarn 10-11December 2011

Uncle Roddus Tramping Dairy:Tramp No.111

Lucretia Tarn 10-11December 2011

The Tops above the Lewis Pass offer stunning views with fairly easy access and great camping spots, making for great summer overnight trips. The forecast was very promising as Uncle Roddus met the other seven in the party at Amberly on Saturday Morning, led by the easy going Gareth Gilbert. Arriving at The St James car park just before 11am and while preparing ourselves for departure for our weekends adventures, Uncle Roddus found the mysteriously missing expensive tramping sock, in his tramping boot, that he had hasseled Mrs Roddus about the night before. He seriously considered not returning home after the weekend, but decided instead to just slip it in with the rest of the washing and keep quiet about it.

The track up to the Lewis tops and Lucretia Tarn starts just across the road from the car park and winds its way up through some beautiful mossy beech before clearing the bush about the 1300M mark. The travel along the tops follows a well used track through short but lush snow grass passing several lovely tarns and offering excellent views of Trovatore, Zampa, Freyberg, Mueller and also down to the Lewis Highway and Maruia Springs.

Heading West along the tops, Uncle Roddus, Craig and Lovisa, decided to bag The Apprentice, as we were passing by so close to it, with the rest of the party happy to just womble over the saddle to the tarn. After admiring the views from The Apprentice, the three dropped directly down the southern face 100m to the Tarn and beat the rest of the party there and thus nabbing the best waterfront real estate. Time from cars about 5 hours. Uncle Roddus was quite keen to have a crack at Mt Technical, as there was still plenty of daylight hours left and at only another 300 odd meters height gain from our camp, was just too tempting to let pass. After pitching tents and refueling, he conned Craig and Lovisa to accompany him.

They quickly made the top of the ridge, passing under the first two rocky outcrops before scrambling over more rocks to where the ridge changes direction. From here the ridge looked pretty difficult but it looked like others had been along this route before and so they carefully battled on until the last bit that looked a bit too technical, but were able to slip below and under before climbing up a gut to about the 1820M mark. With only a short distance to go to the radio mast things started to get much more difficult and two of the party decided they weren't comfortable with the terrain here. Uncle Roddus Had already navigated this bit and called back that he would see if he could get along any further. He was only about 100M from the summit, but after careful consideration decided it was too technical to safely traverse this last bit and had to settle for taking a photo of the top from his vantage point. He rejoined the others and they returned to camp for dinner and rest.

Sunday dawned to a very early rising and the sight of mist in Lucretia valley. Our three intrepid explorers from the night before were today joined by Andrew, as the loop party who wanted to continue down to the Lucretia Biv and out down the Nina to the highway, while Gareth and the rest just wandered back out the way they came in and picked up the cars to meet the rest at the NZDA Hut. The loop party left about 7:45am and carefully dropped down the steep col of Lucretia Stream and then struggled along the patchy but well ribboned track to the Biv. After negotiating some flood damage to the Nina Valley Track, the loop party arrived at the NZDA hut in about 6 and a quarter hours.

Climbing up through the forest

Zampa in background.

Heading up.

looking back towards Trovatore

One of the many Tarns.

Mt Technical from Apprentice

Looking down to Lucretia Tarn and Valley.

Uncle Roddus On Apprentice

Looking back to camp while heading up Technical.

Scrambling along Technical.

The Mast on Technical from the closest point we got to it.

Morning mist in Lucretia and Nina Valleys

Looking Back up Lucretia Col from Lucretia Stream.