Canvastown & Havelock

19th November 2018

Well, a whole week has flown by and in that week, despite it being spring we have gone from summer to winter - 26° in Havelock and now at 5° in St Arnaud at 6.00pm! More about that later.

Tuesday morning, being parked behind the Canvastown Trout Hotel, we decided to cycle the Canvastown Gold Trail, which is just under 15km each way and starts from the Hotel, going up the Wakamarina Valley Road, historically significant because of the 1864 Wakamarina Gold Rush. In that year the population of Wakamarina was about 4500 but there is little evidence of that now and little to show of the miner's workings. Signs at various intervals along the trail explained what we would have seen there 150 or so years ago. But half way up the road we had cycled up and down more hills than what I was expecting and I started to wonder if I'd get up some of the hills on the return journey so we opted to return. The return was actually a breeze and I think that we must have been gradually climbing all the time on the outward ride. Never mind - we have all the information in a brochure!

That afternoon we returned to Havelock, parking behind the Havelock Hotel and enjoying a beer there before walking a circular route of about an hour up to the Waterfall. A nice walk through the bush with a gradual incline.

We had dinner that night at The Captain's Daughter Hotel as I saw they had a whitebait omelette on the menu. So it was whitebait, the first of the season, for me  and a lamb shank for Len.

The next day we were down at the wharf by 9.15am to do the famous Pelorus Mail Boat run which we had been looking forward to for a few days. We had picked a beautiful day to go - calm and with brilliant sunshine, about 24° by afternoon, although we still had to wrap up well on the upper deck. What a fabulous all day cruise it was. Jim, the Scottish owner and skipper, is so knowledgeable, obviously loves the area and is so passionate about what he does.

First mate giving some advice

The bays are so picturesque and it was great to get an insight into the lives of the people he was delivering mail, groceries and other freight, including canoes, too.

Best Mate!

To live in such isolation with no road access and mostly with no Internet accessibility, would make your days so different from what most of us experience.

Fern, Jim's right hand helper from England, was also great with everything and everyone - capable and friendly, chatting easily with the tourists and locals.

Jim found us some little dolphins on the way out and on our return we swung by one of the mussel boats to get a very interesting close view of the team of men hard at work harvesting their green shell mussels.

Mail boat lunch stop 

We had a lovely hour stop for lunch at the Te Rawa Lodge now owned by a Scottish lady and her husband. The lady in the Havelock I Site was also from Scotland and what a great job all these Scottish people in the Sounds are doing for tourism! We enjoyed our hour sitting on the deck at the Lodge eating lunch, seafood chowder for me, and supping our wine!

Feeling tired on our return at 5.00pm we opted to stay another night in the Havelock Hotel carpark before travelling on to Blenheim.