Thursday 13th February

 Thursday


We walked to an amazing museum at Black Point. Such an interesting place with a man who knows so much about mining and its history in this area. We watched a stone crushing machine in action all powered by water. The stone is crushed to release the gold which is captured on a mercury bed…the beginning of the process.  He kept finding things to show us….”I’ll just show you this before you go..! “ The last thing he shared was the hospital admissions ledger dating from the early 1900s until it closed…so interesting too see the maladies and afflictions of those times. 


After that we needed a hike so set off on a couple of adjoining trails taking us up the mountain and through the forests. The birdsong was beautiful. The path was a bit steep with big drop offs at intervals but such a lot to see and smell and feel. When we got back to Reefton we met an older man who started chatting and asked where we’d been. It transpired that he was the man who revealed and maintains the tracks we walked. He was great to talk too, but the sun was so hot we needed to find some shade. 

Decided we needed a treat after our busy day so went to the local coffee shop …the little cakes were delicious but the fruit smoothly was awful, fruitlessly sludge…never again! 

Luckily we had curry for dinner! 


Shadows 





Still in use

For crushing the ore and extracting the gold 



Reefton 




Comments

  1. JasFebruary 24, 2025 at 1:16 PM

    That sign is hilarious! Paul’s not getting any ideas for a new piece of artwork for the home…?! 😂😜

    ReplyDelete

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