Gold town

Feb 18th: First thing Steve went off on an adventure. He got to ride down a river in a rubber ring, float through a pitch-dark glowworm cave and jump into a freezing river. Meanwhile the boys and I had a lie-in and then enjoyed the sunshine at Shantytown. This is a tourist attraction but very well done. It is a recreation of a town at the time of the gold rush here. There was a bank, post office, hospital, fire station, church, cobblers and several other buildings, with lots of information about and recollections by people of the time.
We took a steam train ride (engine was made in Glasgow) to a recreation of a saw mill and then walked back through the forest to have a go at goldpanning. On the way we saw a weka (first picture), a native flightless bird that lives on the west coast. This is the first time we have seen one.
I particularly liked one of the information sheets about life as a bank officer in the area in 1888 – I include a photo and welcome Sally to comment on how alike it is to Barclays in New Milton!
We met Steve back in Greymouth after he had warmed up in a hot spa with muffin and coffee, and we all ‘enjoyed’ a quick lunch at McDonalds. This is a real rarity for the boys as our nearest one to Waimate is 30 miles away.
Back to your maps – we headed north-east out of Greymouth through Reefton as far as Murchison, about 2 and a half hours driving. Found a great campsite, and the picture is of Jonathan on the trampoline.
We were told there would be an animal show at 7pm. We joked with the boys that the 11 ducks we had met around the site would be playing 5-a-side football with the ‘spare’ as referee; that the sheep we had seen would juggle; and that the emus would balance a ball on the end of their beaks. In fact it was a meet-the-animals affair and the owner sheared a sheep with handclippers. After we had seen this, Jonathan asked when the show would be starting. It turned out he had believed me!!
The final photo is of one of the sheep. I think the horns are gorgeous, and reminded us of the singing goat in the film ‘Hoodwinked’ – if you haven’t seen this, do so, it’s great.