Reefton - The town of light

As Charlie's parents made they way around the South Island, we caught up with them at various locations. At the end of January, we visited Reefton, the somewhat depressing but still charming town of just under 1,000 souls. One feature of historical note about Reefton is that it was the first town in New Zealand and the Southern Hemisphere to receive electricity, in 1888. Now it is called the Town of Light.

Mining has always been the biggest money maker in the area and there are many old mining areas scattered around in the nearby forests. Charlie and I went for a run in the historical area of Big River where we witnessed many old shacks and old structures which had been abandoned when mining became less prosperous.

After seeing Reefton, you may think this is one of the more up-beat motels in town, but no. It is one of many the old mining houses in Big River. I can't say that the housing quality has improved much in Reefton itself since then.

We visited a small church in Reefton which had been converted by default to a museum full of old stuff. The people of Reefton used this place as a dumping place when they cleared their houses. Trevor, who maintained the place was a real talker and he took all visitors through individually and explained the processes of extraction gold, how people lived, who was related to who and about weird stuff like lots of people being members of the Druid society. Fascinating!

Zoom in on the notice above:

ELECTIONEERING WOMEN ARE REQUESTED NOT TO CALL HERE

They are recommended to go home, to look after their children, cook their husband's dinners, empty the slops, and generally attend to the domestic affairs for which Nature designed them. By taking this advice they will gain the respect of all right-minded people—an end not to be attained by unsexing themselves and meddling in masculine concerns of which they are profoundly ignorant.

Woman were allowed to vote in 1893 in New Zealand, the first country in the world to grant women the vote! It is good that not ALL men saw woman as 'meddling in masculine concerns'.

We saw many machines in the forest which we couldn't figure out how they worked until good old Trevor showed us the model and explained it all. The battery station above crushes all the rocks to allow separation of gold.

Charlie, you forgot your shoes...

And he stole my sun hat...I think my head is slightly smaller than his. Better quality than quantity :-)

The run from Big River was beautiful and parts of it would make some great mountain biking.

Another local is showing us his shed decorated with Winston Churchill. I thought that was a nice touch.

We had a great time in Reefton. It is a bit of a dump, but it has charisma and I want to go back there again. The locals are not used to so many tourists and love chatting. It is hard to get away. Once you have managed to escape, you can walk the quiet main street (if it is after 6 pm on a Saturday) and be fascinated with the amounts of nonsense speciality stores which have managed to survive so far; vacuum cleaner store, interior design (as if anyone cares there) and the traditional crystal hocus pocus store. I want to go back!