Ranfurly

Saturday 6th June: We left Alexandra and drove sort of east-ish in general, but then spotted a road called 'Loop Road' which proved too tempting to miss. Some time later we came to St Bathans (pop 5 plus a ghost in room 1 of the Vulcan Hotel). This is an old gold-mining settlement and the few remaining buildings are the originals. All that is left of the workings is Blue Lake. Originally there was a hill 112m high but it was left as a 68m deep hole which filled with water = Blue Lake. It is incredibly quiet although in summer it is a popular place to camp and swim. There is a small church there which is Catholic which surprised me until I looked in the graveyard and saw that many of the early diggers were Irish, particularly from Co. Wicklow.
After an enjoyable walk along one side of Blue Lake and lunch we drove on to Ranfurly. This is a small service town (pop dont know but we only saw one person, who was in the Visitor Centre and was so chatty I wonder if we were the first people she had seen this week!) and used to have a railway line through until 1989. Several of the main buildings burnt down in the 1930s and in their place there are several art deco buildings.
The campsite was so very quiet and we were the only ones staying and the boys loved the adventure playground. We settled in for a very cold night.