After leaving Karamea, we head south where, enroute, we stop at Lake Hanlon. Short walk from the road to the lake which is mirror like. It was said to have been caused by the 1929 Murchison earthquake but this is now disputed. It is, non the less, lovely. Our camp for the night was recommended to us – Gentle Annie. It was very quirky, right on the beach and we loved it! Mostly because of the fact that the hot showers were outside!

There is a huge amount of mining history in this area and we managed to do a couple of walks that show this really well – Chasm Creek and Charming Creek. Our favourite was Chasm as it was filled will all sorts of plant life, dripping moss wall, tunnel, swing bridge over a gorge. Charming Creek is a much longer walk but the bottom half, the southern end, is closed and so the only part you can walk is the northern end. It isn’t very charming! There is so much mining equipment still left in place, rusting and being grown over. Does give you an idea of the size of some of these projects though.

A little further down SH67, you come to Granity and Stockton. We stopped to see the current coal that had just been brought down from the open cast mine being poured into great big piles. presumably ready for shipping. We have a look around the North Buller Museum which is filled with items collected from the mining families who lived in the area. The huge chomping arm from the 1947 Marion Electric Shovel was amazing to see!.

Denniston – our last mining history stop was at 1800ft altitude – the Denniston Plateau. The engineering here was at one point referred to as the 8th Wonder of the World as it was so revolutionary at the time. It was a challenging road but worth the drive. What remains of the mining industry give you an idea of just how large this community was and how far spread out it was. The site is vast and sits at the top of this high plateau. Boards dotted around the site explain what life was like, how some of the equipment left behind worked and just how harsh life up here was. We camp the night here. It is cold and it’s not even winter. Can’t imagine what it was like for the miners and their families.