(2015/02/06)…also this morning i woke up by nature, better said with 4 degree Celsius. I noticed that because my face was ice cold and the first move i did was, to check the weather report this morning. “Snowfall?” in the summer? The view to mountain confirmed the weather report. The amount of snow was increased and the level of snow was coming lower as yesterday. Okay, same procedure as yesterday, get a warm and another hour nap in the car. About an hour drive from the campground later i passed Arrowtown, a nice small old gold mining village where you still could get the flair of former times. As i had enough time i thought about hiking to Macetown, an another abandoned gold mining village a view miles up the Arrowriver. After visiting the old Chinese Settlement area i tried to warm up my hands, because it was still cold, with an long black cafe at the Dudley Cottages Cafe.
The sign “Gold Panning” focused me all the time and as one of the staff members was going up and down and “preparing” gravel i took the chance to talk with him. His family owns the local gold jewellery shop and an own gold claim up in the hills. He was really nice and i liked the conversation with him, so i joined his gold panning tutorial. Of course i will find something in my pan, because they where prepared, but if you never did gold panning before, you will be a bit lost what todo and not loose your gold flakes. After my question about hiking to Macetown he said, of course, when you want to cross the river again and again, get your shoes off, then it’s your trail. (Okay, i canceled my plan about that) He asked me if there are places with gold in Germany or better in Munich and i said yes, i heard about it, that you can find some gold flakes in the Isar river, because i had sawn this in TV but you have to move tons of gravel to get at least one flake. Yay, his tutorial was easy and very detailed, about what i have to focus on not to loose some gold, and i got my prepared gold flakes in the pan. What todo with the rest of the afternoon, till i have to drive to my campground in Te Anau? I guess you could imagine what i did 🙂 They had gold pans for renting and selling in their cafe and i decided for buying one pan, they are plastic ones and will not bother in my luggage.
Because i bought one pan he gave me more hints where on the river and on which places in the river i will find some gold. Okay, really? That easy? Of course not i thought. Would be to stupid to think to get gold with the first pan. So hiked the Arrowriver along, a good distance where most day gold panning tourist wouldn’t go or these tourist 4WD cars which drive to Macetown inclusive gold panning in the Arrowriver stops. A small and most invisible path leaded on a curve down to the river where i setup my “claim”. Before i left the car i had ate something, changed to long clothes, packed my working gloves and filled my camelback with water. Down at the river i noticed a lot of sandflies and i reminded me that i had forgotten my insect repellent in the car. Doh! Should i go back? 1,5 hours return? I tried several spots in my area and washed about 4 pans and my mind was really prepared to pan there for hours and find nothing. Wait! What is that? YAY! My first real own panned gold flake! Heureka! After finding the spot where they are hiding it got easier to fine more flakes. In 9 from 10 pans i always had 1-5 flakes of gold in sizes of very very very very tiny to very very tiny. It was real fun and had some kind of meditation for me, it let me forgot everything around me, like watching TV, but better because you are in the nature, hiked about half an hour to the spot, do exercises and you will find some gold flakes. Oh, and the sand flies? They bitten me in the right ear and right hand so that they got swollen for two days with itching. The knuckles wasn’t visible anymore, because it was so thick and swollen.
On the way back an noticed some locals on the river who also does there some gold panning, but a bit more professional. Some areas in New Zealand are public for gold panning by the Department of Conversation but limited to manual gold mining tools, like pans and slides. I have to mention that the gravel at the tutorial was an easy an complete different then i had found in the river and it was very difficult for me to separate my gold flakes from that other small tiny trash in my pan. About 2 hours later of gold panning with success i showed up again at the cafe and he was obviously happy that i was so successful. He showed me then some more tricks how to move the pan, some other tricks to separate that crap from the gold flakes and how to get these flakes more easily into my container. He told me that a few years ago a local had an very luckily random success while searching for gold with an huge gold nugget. His family with the gold shop bought this NUGGET (about 4x5cm) and displays it in their vitrine.
Queenstown was a short stopover on my way to Te Anau, to refill some food and drinks before heading to my campground there. Milford Sounds was the goal which i wanted to reach in a few days. I started to like these DOC campgrounds again, with or without a fee, they have their flair of freedom, no luxury and on very cool places with great view. The stop at Henry Creek Campground was the 6 NZD totally worth and i started to plan my trip to Milford Sounds with more details. This campground about 20km into this direction and with this view i decided to stay there for another night and paid this in advance. It’s very handy when you don’t have to setup and rise down your tent every night and morning…