Silver Peaks Forest lies in an area that has long been popular for family outings and tramping. It is less that 30 km north of Dunedin, on the foothills to the west of the Silver Peaks Mountains, and branch roads from State Highway 1 give easy access. Continue reading “Silverpeaks Forest (dated)”
Swampy Ridge Track
This track serves as a link between the Flagstaff-Pineapple Walk and the Silverpeaks Route. It leads across the 739 m high Swampy Summit.
From the top of the Pineapple-Flagstaff Walk the walkway runs north along a 4WD track. It is obvious, unless the fog (a common occurrence) rolls in. On the 4WD track a vivid red soil can be seen at times – this is probably a baked volcanic ash, found near Dunedin and used as a pigment by the Maori. Takou is Maori name for red ochre. Hence the name Otakou (the place of red ochre) from which Otago derives its name.
The road leads to the buildings built by the Post office, Civil Aviation, and Otago University Physics Department. Following this road, the track passes the peat swamps that once trapped humans and moas alike; moa gizzard stones can be found here, but other animal remains seem to disappear in the acidic soil. The track cuttings expose logs and stumps, evidence of the forest which once covered all these hills. Analysis of soils shows they are typical forest soils still capable of supporting trees now as before.
From Swampy Summit, the track follows the old Snowy Mountain track to a saddle between Hightop and Swampy, and on to link with the Silverpeaks Route.
Gleaned from DoC hard-copy information sheet.
Flagstaff Creek Walking Track
Planting commenced at Flagstaff Forest in 1906, with introduced trees of a wide variety and type. By 1914 22 different species had been tried, many of them deciduous trees from Britain. These species were unable to compete with weed growth and a switch to evergreen pines was undertaken. Planting from then on was concentrated on the use of Radiata pine, Ponderosa pine, Douglas fir and Larch with a scattering of Spruce in the wetter gullies.
Following WWI there were a number of returned servicemen in need of rehabilitation work and these in the main provided the labour force. During the depression in the 1930s the city made considerable progress in forestry with an ample labour force.
Clearfelling of the first crop commenced at Flagstaff in 1934. Local log sales required approximately 10 hectares per annum to be clear-felled. Two export log trials were undertaken, one in 1959 and the other in 1962.
Export logging on a regular basis commenced in 1969 and continued at a volume of approximately 100,000 cubic metres annually. This reduced to approximately 14,000 cubic metres as a result of the lack of planting between 1940 and 1969. Export logs were sold to Korean, Japanese and Chinese buyers.
With the income and confidence generated by earlier sales the council in 1970 decided to expand its forest estate. Following that decision it added several thousand more hectares making a gross forested estate of 10,000 hectares.
We have a current planting programme of 350 hectares per annum. The replantings and new plantings are in Radiata pine with small annual plantings of Douglas fir and Macrocarpa. All stands have been established with the best quality seed stock available and have been pruned and thinned to produce high quality sawlogs and peelers to maximise the value and the market opportunities of timber produced.
From City Forests Ltd hard copy information sheet
Flagstaff Name
Flagstaff’s original name was the Maori ‘Whakaari’, meaning ‘uplifted to view’. Like many other place-names that were changed in early European times, so was Whakaari. The name Flagstaff was adopted by the early settlers because flags were raised on the summit to signal the approach of coaches from Central Otago. – Department of Lands and Survey, for NZ Walkway Commission.
Bannockburn: Background notes.
Settlement of Bannockburn had its beginnings when the discovery of Hartley and Reilly in 1862 of rich gold deposits in the Cromwell Gorge brought hordes of alluvial miners to the area. These miners were soon to pge out claims along the Bannockburn Creek. Its tributaries and neighbouring streams most of which proved to be extremely profitable.
Mount Cargill – Information
Mount Cargill has three peaks (Cargill, Holmes and Zion).
In Maori legend they represent the petrified head and feet of a princess of an early Otakou tribe. The mount was however known to the Maori community as kapaka-tau-mahaka – “snaring pigeons with a string’ – and following European settlement it was given the name of the lay leader of the Otago colonists – Captain William Cargill.
William Lanarch bought the summit of Mt Cargill in 1872. It was then covered in forest, but later several large fires severely reduced the forest cover. Grazing of stock continued over the land, while just to the west several farms started on Pigeon Flat. Following Larnach’s death, the land became a scenic reserve.
– From DoC hard copy information sheet
Taieri River Geology
The Taieri River cuts through 100 million-year-old breccia containing an almost 1 km layer of greywacke, schist, cobble and pebble breccia conglomerate. This breccia extends as a strip right down the Taieri Plains, to the inland side of the coastal hills as far south as Milton. After flowing through the flood-prone Taieri Plains, the river cuts through the coastal hills to disgorge into the Pacific Ocean by the picturesque fishing village of Taieri Mouth.
– From DoC hard copy information sheet
Dunedin’s Hills’ History
Dunedin’s hills are virtually all of volcanic origin. Several eruptions occurred near Port Chalmers from 10-13MYA. The lava flows from this volcano and its many smaller flank vents extend in a roughly circular pattern, of some 15 km radius, over the sediments.
Subsequent erosion and subsidence have resulted in, among other things, the formation of the Otago Harbour, a gash that runs across the middle of the volcano, separating the island that is now the Otago Peninsula from the mainland. This gash tends in a north-east south-west direction, a direction similar to many of the faultlines of the basins and ranges of Otago and the uplifted Southern Alps. The island became the Otago Peninsula when a build-up of sand drifting up the coast from the Clutha River mouth joined it to the mainland.
The three peaks of Mt Cargill are all of volcanic origin. The Organ Pipes on Mt Holmes are one of the most spectacular landforms still visible. They were formed as a result of the period of volcanism. They were formed into their column shape during the cooling of lavas that flowed across the summit.
Until quite recently, the hills of Dunedin were covered in forests – the bulk of which were rain forest or southern beech forest. Large areas of these forests disappeared some time before European settlement. Repeated burning by the Maori was the major cause of this although the climate also became unfavourable for some trees. Tussock grassland now thrives where these forests once stood, with the Flagstaff Walk crossing a large area of the grassland. Successive fires in the area have prevented regrowth of scrub and forest.
Since whaling stations were set up on the shores of Otago in the early 19th century and in particular since original European settlement in 1848, cutting, sawmilling, clearing and fire have destroyed the greater part of the forest vegetation. Fortunately, pockets of the once extensive forest are still evident in the watersheds of the Leith, Silverstream, Waikouaiti, and at Silverpeaks, Maungatua and Mt Cargill.
Parts of Flagstaff and Swampy Hill have been repeatedly burnt yet change is not as evident as expected.
The rain forest grew from sea level to about 600 m above sea level.
Demands for land for settlement and agriculture quickly reduced this amount of forest. A few remaining areas have not been greatly changed and are found in two distinct belts: Podocarp-hardwood forest grows from sea level to 365m and mountain cedar-totara forest grows up to the bush-line. The Mt Cargill Walk passes through remnant podocarp-hardwood forest. Southern beech forest is confined to small patches hemmed in by rain forest, such as the one seen on the Mt Cargill Walk.
The present forest margins were mainly established over a century ago by a process of deforestation.
While possums and rats are abundant on Mt Cargill, they are rarely seen in daylight by the casual visitor. Much more readily visible is the wide diversity of birdlife. Once yellow-crowned parakeets, kakas and laughing owls lived in these forests. Nowadays, as humans have dramatically altered the area, these birds are gone. Today, pigeons, once driven from the hills by sawmilling, have returned and are a common sight on the walkways, as are bellbirds, grey warblers and tomtits.
Nearer the summit, in swampy gullies, the fernbird with its spine-like tail feathers, is occasionally seen. The eastern Rosella, a many-coloured parakeet released in Dunedin from a visiting ship at the turn of the century adds an exotic flavour to the lower regions of the Mt Cargill Walk.
Throughout the area the Red Admiral and the less common Yellow Admiral butterflies can be seen. At lower altitudes, the small blue butterfly (Lycaena baldenarium), with is purplish wings spotted with black, is abundant. Tussock butterflies, their brownish wings spotted with a large orange area, and the tiger moths, are found in the tussock on the skyline. The adult male tiger moths have black forewings and orange hindwings while the females are wingless and live under rocks.
The basement rock for most of Otago is schist: a flaky layered rock. Along the coast, areas of this schist became submerged about 90MYA, during which time deposition of sediments began. Subsequent uplift, or retreat of the sea has since exposed these sediments. Part of these deposits can be seen in the cliffs below the Tunnel Beach Walk.
– From DoC information Sheet hard copy
Sandymount and Sandfly Bay Information
The Sandfly Bay-Sandymount area is remarkable for its native fauna and flora and its dramatic coastal scenery. Among the many outstanding natural features are the Sandfly Bay yellow-eyed penguin colony and the 220m-high cliffs of Lover’s Leap, a collapsed sea chasm at Sandymount. The complex, covering about 500 ha is protected for its wildlife and recreational values. The Sandfly Bay wildlife refuge, created in 1908 is the oldest on Otago Peninsula. Its soaring dunes, dark cliffs, heavy surf and rocky islets give it a character rather different from Sandymount’s chasms, low forest and grasslands. Sandymount summit (320m) is the third highest point on the peninsula.
Sandfly Bay, named not for the insect but for the sand blown up by the wind in this area, has some of New Zealand’s tallest sand dunes which rise for some 100 metres above the beach. With the clearance of coastal forest, windblown sand has migrated inland to create impressive dunes reaching to the summit of Sandymount.
Otago Peninsula was created by a volcano that was active 10-13MYA. Over time, the volcanic peaks were worn down by erosion and Otago Harbour formed along a heavily eroded line of weakness or faulting in the earth’s crust. The exposed rocks in this area are all volcanic, with basalt columns prominently exposed at Lover’s Leap. Both Lover’s Leap and The Chasm were formed when soft lower layers of volcanic rock were eroded by the sea.
Three midden sites, representing early Maori encampments or kaika nohoaka, have been recorded around Sandymount (pikiwhara). There was a Maori settlement here in 1844.
Gleaned from DoC hard copy sheets
Quoin Cliff, Otago Peninsula
Accessed from Pipikaretu Road. 1.20 ret. Tramping track – unbenched. Manager: DCC CAM and private land.
‘Access to Quoin Cliff continues to cause problems, as there is a sign on the gate “Access to Beach closed.” The sign is technically correct. However you may go through this gate to get to the cliff as you are not going to the beach!’ – Quoted from Antony Hamel’s writings.
“quoin” definition: 1. An exterior angle of a wall or other piece of masonry.
2. Any of the stones used in forming such an angle, often being of large size and dressed or arranged so as to form a decorative contrast with the adjoining walls.
Saddle Hill Hotel
Saddle Hill Hotel
(9 miles from Dunedin)
Ewan McColl……..Proprietor
First class wines and spirits.
(N.B. Good stabling and paddock accommodation)
This was the advertisement in the Otago Witness in 1864.
Little is known about the early history of this hotel but it appears that Ewan M’Coll was killed in an accident when he was a young man. The next owner was James Purvis and an early photograph shows the building marked ‘James Purvis Hotel’, and on the Dunedin side there is an extension marked ‘Oats and Chaff’. There was no balcony or iron work but three sash windows upstairs and two windows and a centre door at ground level. Behind the hotel the large hump of Saddle Hill can be seen, with bush right down to the present Saddle Hill road.
By 1851 the route round Saddle Hill had been established as the main road to the south and by 1859 it was metalled as far as Taieri Ferry. On 12 January 1961 James McIntosh, Otago’s pioneer coachman set out from Dunedin to drive the mail coach for the first time as far as the Clutha Ferry.
Saddle Hill and Lookout Point were two of the trouble spots on the south road. Passengers had to walk up Saddle Hill and to steady the coach for the downward journey, a skid, fastened to a chain, was placed under the back wheel.
A passenger commenting on early coaching days writes ‘How Carmichael managed to get his four horse team safely round the exposed places on Lookout Point and Saddle Hill I cannot tell. I turned my head or shut my eyes while he, standing up with the whip and voice, urged them past danger.’
In the early days there was a small settlement further down the hill called The Junction where the road branches off across the Plain. Here in 1869 Sydney Turnbull opened a store and bakery and in his large brick ovens he continued to make bread for several years to supply his second store at the corner of Bush and Gordon Roads. There was a blacksmith, wheelwright and saddler and also Steadman’s Hotel which was a stopping place for coaches. Near here was the toll-house which for some years was in the charge of ‘Cheekie” McKenzie, who had an iron hook over an injured hand.
Mr R W Stevenson whose great grandfather Robert Stevenson came out in the Philip Laing has lived in the former Saddle Hill Hotel with his family since 1957. He has made it more comfortable inside and where he raised the back about three feet to brighten the kitchen he has matched the timber carefully with the skill of a craftsman. He is proud of his old hotel but although he has had all the materials for some time to repaint it he has been unable to do so. – “More Taieri Buildings” 1972 by Daphne Lemon.
Salisbury Property
Donald Reid was ambitious, disciplined, far-sighted and a hard worker. He was born on a farm in Fifeshire, Scotland and it had always been his ambition to own his own farm.
With his two young brothers and his widowed mother, who had just remarried, he arrived at Port Chalmers in 1849. He was fifteen years old. In two years’ time he was grazing his own bullocks at Breadalbane, North Taieri. Before he took up 62,000 acres at ‘Salisbury’ in 1857, he had gained experience at the Valpy Farm at Forbury and had also operated his own farm at Caversham for two years, where he had succeeded in bringing swamp land into cultivation.
By 1857 there were clay-walled thatched roofed cottages sparsely dotted round the foothills of North Taieri well above the swamp of the central plain. Reid built a peesy (or pise [with e acute]) which was his highland name for the Australian named wattle and daub cottage. He brought the water supply right to the cottage with a tap on the verandah. He called his property ‘Salisbury’, as the hills reminded him of Arthur’s Seat and the Salisbury Crags, Edinburgh. Gradually the wilderness of high fern, manuka scrub and flax became a model farm: the flax and fern roots were broken up by ploughing with oxen; bricks were burnt on the property to build accommodation for the men; shelter belts of blue gums, macrocarpus, wattles and pinus insignis, ornamental trees such as poplars, weeping willows and hawthorn hedges were planted, and a plantation of gum trees were started with seed from Australia. ‘Salisbury’ was almost a self-contained community where most of their requirements were produced, including candles and soap. By 1865 the change from grain growing to sheep grazing had been made and it became one of the best grazing estates in Otago, splendidly watered and well sheltered with belts of trees.
When gold was discovered in 1861, Reid made a bargain with his men. They agreed not to abandon their farm duties for the goldfields until their important summer work was over. In return, Reid supplied transport, equipment and supplies for three months whilst they worked a claim together. This claim brought them more than their usual share of luck. Reid also ran a carting business to the diggings taking farm produce and stores, making a trip each way every week with a bullock dray.
… The first Mrs Donald Reid died in 1868 and he married Mrs Price in 1874.
… Donald Reid was one of the outstanding men on the Taieri and in Otago. His interests were wide including farming, transport, Harbour Board, politics and the development of industry and local affairs. He served continuously on road boards and school committees and donated the glebe of 10 acres on which the North Taieri Church and manse stand; he was instrumental in the passing of some early land Acts and in Sir H. Atkinson’s government, after the Abolition of the Provinces in 1876 he was Minister of Lands and Public Works. When he retired from public life in 1878 he commenced the business of auctioneer and stock and station agent which … developed into the … large concern.
His journey of 24 miles to Dunedin and back each day involved three to four hours’ travel in all weathers, part of it in an open buggy. in 1911 Reid made the decision to sell ‘Salisbury’ and the following year it was purchased by Mr L C Hazlett who retained the flat land for grazing his race horses and built the four cottages between ‘Salisbury’ and the North Taieri Church.
From 1945 to 1965 Mr E C S Falconer of Dunedin owned the property… The present owners are Mr and Mrs P O McDonnell. To maintain the ‘Salisbury property in its former condition would be costly and a great deal of work. Young Mr and Mrs J W Penno [who] now live in the house… – “Taieri Buildings” 1970 by Daphne Lemon
With his two young brothers and his widowed mother, who had just remarried, he arrived at Port Chalmers in 1849. He was fifteen years old. In two years’ time he was grazing his own bullocks at Breadalbane, North Taieri. Before he took up 62,000 acres at ‘Salisbury’ in 1857, he had gained experience at the Valpy Farm at Forbury and had also operated his own farm at Caversham for two years, where he had succeeded in bringing swamp land into cultivation.
By 1857 there were clay-walled thatched roofed cottages sparsely dotted round the foothills of North Taieri well above the swamp of the central plain. Reid built a peesy (or pise [with e acute]) which was his highland name for the Australian named wattle and daub cottage. He brought the water supply right to the cottage with a tap on the verandah. He called his property ‘Salisbury’, as the hills reminded him of Arthur’s Seat and the Salisbury Crags, Edinburgh. Gradually the wilderness of high fern, manuka scrub and flax became a model farm: the flax and fern roots were broken up by ploughing with oxen; bricks were burnt on the property to build accommodation for the men; shelter belts of blue gums, macrocarpus, wattles and pinus insignis, ornamental trees such as poplars, weeping willows and hawthorn hedges were planted, and a plantation of gum trees were started with seed from Australia. ‘Salisbury’ was almost a self-contained community where most of their requirements were produced, including candles and soap. By 1865 the change from grain growing to sheep grazing had been made and it became one of the best grazing estates in Otago, splendidly watered and well sheltered with belts of trees.
When gold was discovered in 1861, Reid made a bargain with his men. They agreed not to abandon their farm duties for the goldfields until their important summer work was over. In return, Reid supplied transport, equipment and supplies for three months whilst they worked a claim together. This claim brought them more than their usual share of luck. Reid also ran a carting business to the diggings taking farm produce and stores, making a trip each way every week with a bullock dray.
… The first Mrs Donald Reid died in 1868 and he married Mrs Price in 1874.
… Donald Reid was one of the outstanding men on the Taieri and in Otago. His interests were wide including farming, transport, Harbour Board, politics and the development of industry and local affairs. He served continuously on road boards and school committees and donated the glebe of 10 acres on which the North Taieri Church and manse stand; he was instrumental in the passing of some early land Acts and in Sir H. Atkinson’s government, after the Abolition of the Provinces in 1876 he was Minister of Lands and Public Works. When he retired from public life in 1878 he commenced the business of auctioneer and stock and station agent which … developed into the … large concern.
His journey of 24 miles to Dunedin and back each day involved three to four hours’ travel in all weathers, part of it in an open buggy. in 1911 Reid made the decision to sell ‘Salisbury’ and the following year it was purchased by Mr L C Hazlett who retained the flat land for grazing his race horses and built the four cottages between ‘Salisbury’ and the North Taieri Church.
From 1945 to 1965 Mr E C S Falconer of Dunedin owned the property… The present owners are Mr and Mrs P O McDonnell. To maintain the ‘Salisbury property in its former condition would be costly and a great deal of work. Young Mr and Mrs J W Penno [who] now live in the house… – “Taieri Buildings” 1970 by Daphne Lemon
Whare Flat School
Starting from a whare of stones, built by Mr Birnie in 1857 at the junction of Whare Creek and the Silverstream, the settlement at Whare Flat consisted manly of Scots, nearly all of whom spoke Gaelic. The first school opened in 1868 in a ‘but’ and ‘ben’ with Mr Neil McLeod as the teacher. The earliest roll call has a strong highland flavour: Macmillans, McQuilkans, Camerons, Kays, McDoalds, McInnesses, McLachlans, Jollys, McKenies, Leishmans, Pages, McRaes, McIntyres, Andersons, Hays, Thomsons, Rollinsons, Lambs, Lennies, Dodds, Gilchrists.
Later, the present wooden schoolhouse and school were built and Mr Robert Leishman, who owned the only bullock dray in the valley carted all the timber. This one-class, sole-charge school had 42 pupils at one time before it closed in 1943 and the pupils came from as far as Strath-Taieri and boarded in the valley during the week. The building was the centre of social, educational and religious life of the community and on Sundays public worship was held there by preachers from Knox Church and later from North Taieri Church, with Dr Stuart presiding on special occasions.
The first southern exit from Dunedin was by Halfway Bush along the Silverstream to North Taieri so that this settlement, with its two flax-mills and rope works, was until about 1860 a busy highway. Travellers would be mainly on foot, carrying heavy loads as bullocks and horses were scarce. Stock for the farms was driven this way from Port Chalmers and Dunedin where it was landed from Australia and thousands of sheep passed each year at shearing time to and from the woolshed on Flagstaff. About 100 diggers set to work on the surrounding hills when gold was discovered at Darkie’s Gully and there was said to be an illicit still at Powder Creek. In the mid 1870s however, the Dunedin Corporation took over the whole area as a watershed and the settlers gradually moved out as the trees were planted. – “Taieri Buildings” 1970 by Daphne Lemon
Later, the present wooden schoolhouse and school were built and Mr Robert Leishman, who owned the only bullock dray in the valley carted all the timber. This one-class, sole-charge school had 42 pupils at one time before it closed in 1943 and the pupils came from as far as Strath-Taieri and boarded in the valley during the week. The building was the centre of social, educational and religious life of the community and on Sundays public worship was held there by preachers from Knox Church and later from North Taieri Church, with Dr Stuart presiding on special occasions.
The first southern exit from Dunedin was by Halfway Bush along the Silverstream to North Taieri so that this settlement, with its two flax-mills and rope works, was until about 1860 a busy highway. Travellers would be mainly on foot, carrying heavy loads as bullocks and horses were scarce. Stock for the farms was driven this way from Port Chalmers and Dunedin where it was landed from Australia and thousands of sheep passed each year at shearing time to and from the woolshed on Flagstaff. About 100 diggers set to work on the surrounding hills when gold was discovered at Darkie’s Gully and there was said to be an illicit still at Powder Creek. In the mid 1870s however, the Dunedin Corporation took over the whole area as a watershed and the settlers gradually moved out as the trees were planted. – “Taieri Buildings” 1970 by Daphne Lemon
Horseshoe Bush
South of Lake Waihola in the region known as Waihola Gorge, a road branches off the Main South Road by the brick Ewing Phosphate Company building. At the end of this, a left-hand turn marked ‘Drivers Road. No Exit’ leads to this stable where Mr P J Heffernan, owner of Horseshoe Bush Estate since 1967 keeps his racehorses.
This stable, completed in 1884 with stone from the hill behind, took two years to build and consists of 12 stalls, 2 loose boxes, living quarters for two men, harness and storage rooms. The concrete floor laid over 18 inches of blue metal hammered into the swamp ground, the joinery by Mr Littlejohn of Milton and the masonry by Mr Lothian of Burnside are still in excellent condition; and the original spouting and Scotch iron roofing are still there. …
… It was built for Henry Driver who, born in the U.S.A. came to Otago as a youth from the Australian gold diggings. A merchant in Dunedin, he served on the first City Council and the Provincial Council and for a number of years was the member for Roslyn in the House of Representatives. …
… in 1884 he retired from public life. With the eye of a perfectionist, he supervised the completion of the stable and the area adjacent to it was divided into eight 22-acre paddocks with hawthorn hedges, each one with a heavy oregon gate with a number. …
… W H Valpy [when he] settled on the property in 1853, calling it ‘Horseshoe Bush’. …
… Another point of interest at ‘Horseshoe Bush’ is the ‘mound’, Waihola Gorge (now Clarendon) cemetery, which is on top of the knoll reached through a gate where the road marked Circle Hill joins the Clarendon-Berwick road. There are several unmarked graves, but names of several well-known families and people in the area can be read on the remaining tombstones. These include Yorston, Young, Bell, Fryer, Sinclair, Sutherland, Craigie, Donald McMaster, Rev. John McNicol and H B Flett. – “More Taieri Buildings” by Daphne Lemon, 1972.
This stable, completed in 1884 with stone from the hill behind, took two years to build and consists of 12 stalls, 2 loose boxes, living quarters for two men, harness and storage rooms. The concrete floor laid over 18 inches of blue metal hammered into the swamp ground, the joinery by Mr Littlejohn of Milton and the masonry by Mr Lothian of Burnside are still in excellent condition; and the original spouting and Scotch iron roofing are still there. …
… It was built for Henry Driver who, born in the U.S.A. came to Otago as a youth from the Australian gold diggings. A merchant in Dunedin, he served on the first City Council and the Provincial Council and for a number of years was the member for Roslyn in the House of Representatives. …
… in 1884 he retired from public life. With the eye of a perfectionist, he supervised the completion of the stable and the area adjacent to it was divided into eight 22-acre paddocks with hawthorn hedges, each one with a heavy oregon gate with a number. …
… W H Valpy [when he] settled on the property in 1853, calling it ‘Horseshoe Bush’. …
… Another point of interest at ‘Horseshoe Bush’ is the ‘mound’, Waihola Gorge (now Clarendon) cemetery, which is on top of the knoll reached through a gate where the road marked Circle Hill joins the Clarendon-Berwick road. There are several unmarked graves, but names of several well-known families and people in the area can be read on the remaining tombstones. These include Yorston, Young, Bell, Fryer, Sinclair, Sutherland, Craigie, Donald McMaster, Rev. John McNicol and H B Flett. – “More Taieri Buildings” by Daphne Lemon, 1972.
Thomson’s Wairongoa Water
Mr A C B Thomson lifted a moss-covered piece of wood from the track and exposed an iron pipe from which water poured into a small tank set in the ground. I gasped slightly as I swallowed the first mouthful. ‘It’s fizzy and tastes like the Tonic you have with gin.’ The water contains carbon dioxide, 99.5 per cent pure, soda, iron and many trace elements. ‘This could be a spa like those in the Black Forest but it’s much more beautiful here, I think. … There are ten natural springs in 100 yards along the track through the glade where the most surprising mixture of native and exotic trees grow together. …
… The bottling shed, where the track opens out, was built in 1894, and about six year ago was refaced with corrugated iron. Inside is a balcony with a wooden slatted front. ‘As children we used to act plays up there and the audience would sit downstairs.’ A small six-sided shed, next to this building, once housed the gasometer where the natural carbon dioxide, collected from the spring water, was used to charge the soda syphons.
Wairongoa, which means Medicine Water, was known to the Maoris and this area was first acquired by Mr John Bell who settled at Woodside. Mr Alexander Thomson purchased it from him in 1894. Bottling of the water commenced the same year in the existing shed and it was exported as far as Australia until transport and freight charges made it uneconomical. The bottling business closed down in 1939.
In this corner of North Taieri, once bare tussock, scrub, gorse and rocks, Alexander Thomson ran his farm, specialising in Clydesdales which won many prizes and championships; and he also created a beauty spot. Visitors in their thousands used to come to see the trees, spacious lawns and two splendid fountains. Trains made a special stop here. And although the bottled water was on sale in the shops, visitors were allowed to drink it on the property and to take away as much as they could carry with them. But this generosity was repaid with the most violent form of vandalism and the Thomson family were forced to close their property to the public.
Wairongoa is still closed to the public and readers are requested not to try and gain admittance. – “Taieri Buildings”, by Daphne Lemon, 1970.