Beez Neez now Chy Whella - To Lake Brunner

To Lake Brunner

Beez Neez now Chy Whella

Big Bear and Pepe Millard

Wed 3 Sep 2014 22:37

To Lake Brunner

A very gentle start to the day with only a short road trip to Lake Brunner.

We popped into New World for a few groceries and we just had to convert to this company. Lucky Sod potatoes and onions for starters.

Coming out of Greymouth were some road works, nothing amazing but the traffic lights were. A first for us. The LED lights in the amber place whizz round and countdown the minutes until the lights go green. Very fancy.

This bevy of beauties was a little further down the main road. Amazing to see so many intact ladies.

We spent some time at the Brunner Mine, site of the Brunner Mine Disaster when sixty five men and boys lost their lives, the worst in New Zealand’s industrial history. Sad and very, very interesting. The intervention of the Historic Places Trust to save the deteriorating complex in 1978 represents one of the earliest efforts to conserve (and interpret to the public) this country’s industrial heritage on a large scale.

We pulled away from the Grey River.

We turned right, heading for Lake Brunner.

Just after we had made our right turn we saw the Memorial sign. We had planned to find out where the Stillwater Cemetery was when we got back to Greymouth on the morrow, we found it by accident. We had seen the moving picture at the Brunner Mine of the mass grave to thirty three of the lost miners, here we saw it as it looks today. Also the grave of the children lost when their house was buried in a land slip – the cemetery got it’s own blog.

On we went, following the rail track – the one we came along on our TranzAlpine journey from Dunedin to Greymouth. Our reason for coming to Lake Brunner was because as we drove in yesterday Tourism Radio raved about the beauty of the lake, the nice campsite, the friendly hotel where everyone meets and tourists leave as friends. The real New Zealand, the area the professionals come for the real pictures and reflection shots. Okaaaaaayy then.

We found the adequate campsite – if it wanted to become a Top 10 site much wonga would have to be spent........, having said that, it was clean enough. Our first look at the lake was over a tiny brand new housing estate.

Lake Brunner is the largest lake in the northwestern South Island of New Zealand, covering an area of 40 km². The lake's outflow is the Arnold River, a tributary of the Grey River. The lake lies 31 kilometres to the southeast of Greymouth. The main settlement close to the lake is Moana, on the northern shore. Located several kilometres inland from the coast road (State Highway 6), it is less frequently visited by tourists than many of the West Coast's scenic highlights, but it is becoming increasingly popular, in part due to its reputation for fishing. Lake Brunner was named by John Rochfort for the 19th century explorer Thomas Brunner, and the Māori name for the lake, Kotuku moana, means "Sea of herons". The New Zealand freshwater mussel (Hyridella menziesi) is found in the lake. By 1976 twenty percent of the catchment of the lake was farmed and there was a population of 84 at the settlement of Moana. The waters of Lake Brunner have been monitored since the 1990’s and it shows that the water quality of the lake is declining. By 2010 all the measured determinates for water quality were trending up but it was still considered to have good water quality. The poorest water quality is at Cashmere Bay, next to Moana.

We went down to the lake for a late lunch and whilst very pleasant we found it not spectacular. A fun thing was to watch a man drive up and down the access road terriers in hot pursuit, guess that constitutes ‘walkies’.

The Yacht Club.

Moana is a small town in the West Coast Region of the South Island of New Zealand. It is situated on the northern shore of Lake Brunner, and is beside the outflow of the lake into the Arnold River. There is a pedestrian suspension bridge crossing the Arnold from the town to access the lake shore across the river, with some short easy bush walks on each side. The town's main tourist attractions are the panoramic views and water sport opportunities arising from its position on the shores of Lake Brunner. The Midland Line railway passes through Moana; the TranzAlpine tourist passenger train passes through once in each direction daily, and freight trains of coal operate more frequently. The population of the Lake Brunner statistical area, which includes Moana but covers a much larger area, was 258 in the 2006 Census, a decrease of 6 from 2001. In May 2013, Moana became one of the first places in New Zealand to get 4G wireless broadband. Lake Brunner School is a coeducational full primary (years 1-8) school with fifty five pupils. Rotomanu School closed and merged into this school in 2005.

We called at the information centre, closed for the season, the hotel it was housed in was on the market. We didn’t see a living souls so we went for a drive. This lady was in a field down the road.