Alexandra and Clyde

Friday 5th June: It rained overnight and the miserable campsite was now a wet miserable campsite. We drove north-ish to Alexandra, where we arrived just in time for lunch (photo of boys in camp playground). This town is renowned as being hot and dry in the summer, and cold and dry in the winter. It certainly was cold and dry, in fact bitterly cold. Alexandra turned out to be a busy little town with an enormous campsite. On the hillside overlooking the town there is a large clock (photo). 12m in diameter, it seems, and has been there since 1968. It is even lit at night.
We drove 10km to Clyde, an old gold-mining town from the 1860s. At its height there were 70 hotels here, and some of them remain. They are stone buildings which is unusual to see in NZ, and are in good condition. In fact some of them are in beter condition than one of the newer buildings on the main road (photo).
There is a dam just outside Clyde (photo) - it was the damming of this river that flooded Cromwell, some miles up the road, where we went last weekend and saw the abandoned and recovered buildings. All around the hillsides here is wild thyme growing, which smelt wonderful as we wandered round enjoying the view of the lake.
We went back to Alexandra and the boys played in the public playground before we returned to the campsite and put the heating on.