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Big River (4WD)
| West Coast rainforest, with its ancient beeches draped in lichen, and
moss in every shade of green, crowds the road that was once the 30km
lifeline for the mining settlement of Big River. At its peak, in the first
quarter of this century, 100 people lived in the town at the end of the
road, and the mine that drew them there surrendered up 100,000 ounces of
gold before its quartz reef gave out in the 1940s. |
| The town began in the 1880s, when the Big River Gold Mining Co. set up
machinery, built a dam, and started mining. The sinking of the main shaft
began in 1890; it was to reach a depth of 535m. In 1897 a cyanide plant was
installed, for separating the gold from the crushed quartz. |
| Gordon McDonagh, who in the 1930s and 40s drove the Big River supply
truck, described this route as 'the worst road I've ever driven in New
Zealand'. Waterfalls cascade from switchback corners as you zigzag down
steep valley walls. Of the 'corduroy' - the logs laid across the track as a
foundation when the road was built in the 1880s - some is disintegrating,
some is holding firm. The track was upgraded in late 1999 but it is still a
challenge, and should not be tackled alone. |
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Past the site of the old Merrijigs Hotel, you begin to see relics of the
gold mining that kept the road busy until the 1940s. Tunnels wind into the
hillside, providing a home now to impressive-looking cave wetas.
After a steep, bonnet-first drop into the tea-colored water of Big River,
you get to Settlement Flat, site of the town and the gold-extraction plant.
Relics include four large steel tanks that once contained cyanide, used to
extract gold from the mine's tailings. Across the river are the remains of
the 10-head stamper used to crush the quartz that came down an aerial
ropeway from the mine itself.
The road to the mine site runs up behind the stamper, past the site of the
school and the Tin Town' of single miners' huts, and ends on a small flat
clearing. This is dominated by the newly restored corrugated iron plant room
that houses the remains of the Robey steam engine and coal-fired boiler that
powered the mine's cableways. The huge engine lowered miners from the poppet
head high on the hill above down 600m to the bottom of the mine. The poppet
head is the result of an earlier restoration effort: in 1982 the then Forest
Service rebuilt it using red beech timbers.
Accommodation is available in a 40-bed Department of Conservation hut on a
hill overlooking Settlement Flat. |
HOW TO GET THERE
Start at the intersection of
Broadway and SH7 at Reefton.
MAPS: L30 (Reefton), L31
(Springs Junction)
N > S. Start at L30 159980
DISTANCE: 52km return
TRACK CONDITIONS
The first 2.3km of
road is sealed. Gravel follows, to the beginning of the Big River track.
This track was upgraded in the latter part of 1999 and is in fair to good
condition. The track can be closed by slips, washouts and fallen trees. |
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