Touring through New Zealand’s gold mining history. Paul Richards has been exploring our golden past.
One of the many bucket list tracks for me is the track up to Mount Buster goldfield, on over Mount Kyeburn and down to Danseys Pass. This track is in the Oteake Conservation Park which covers almost 65,000 hectares of mountainous high country, tussock plateaus, scree slopes, shrubland, and wetland, in the area between Danseys Pass, Naseby, Omarama and Kurow.
We were fortunate to have this track as part of the High Country Journeys South Island Grand Slam Tour. On this day we started at Omarama, coming over the Omarama Saddle to Saint Bathans, around to Naseby and up the Mount Buster Road to the DOC information board at the end of the road. Passing through the gate, we ascended the hill up to the tussock plateau. This track was quite steep in places and was crossed with flood channels taking the water from the inside edge of the track diagonally across the track and over the side. This meant there were many humps and hollows so relatively slow speed with care to not belly out over the humps. Once up on to the plateau it was fairly easy going across to the Mount Buster goldfield turnoff, a distance of about six km from the gate. Parking up in the flat area of the goldfield, we took time to enjoy the huge tailings heaps and to reflect on some of the lower intelligence of drivers who had attempted to drive (unsuccessfully) up these huge heaps. There were many single wheel tracks (motor bikes) up and over the heaps as well. Why do some people take the time and effort to get up to these special and spectacular areas and then trash them?
From the goldfield you could see Mount Kyeburn on the skyline. We drove across the goldfield and out the back of it to take the track up to Mount Kyeburn. This was again quite steep in places but in good condition so no issues for our convoy. Fortunately, it was dry as it would be slippery in the wet. About halfway to the summit we stopped to look back down to the goldfields. We could see the track snaking up below us, the goldfield in the middle distance, the Ida and Hawkdun ranges above the goldfield and out towards Omarama, and St Mary’s Range out to the right.
Next stop was at the summit of Mount Kyeburn. By now the tussock was getting thin and there were scree slopes. We could see Naseby way down in the valley to the left of the Mount Buster goldfield and see dark clouds forming, indicating rain on its way. At the summit, the track went up and across the scree slope and down the ridge towards Danseys Pass.
This track was very steep in places, low range first gear, feet off the pedals to let the truck take its own time, using the hill decent feature to go a bit faster or slower at times (set like cruise control but holding a set speed downhill – works great). As we worked our way down from Mount Kyeburn we could see Danseys Pass Road way down in the valley to the right. We passed around the left-hand side a big knob to come round and across the face of it further down. From here it was down to the valley floor and out to Danseys Pass Road where we stopped for a breather and for the rest of the trucks to catch up. At the road we turned right and toured down to the iconic Danseys Hotel which was our accommodation for this evening.
This track from Mt Buster Road through to Danseys Pass Road via Mt Buster goldfield and Mt Kyeburn really lived up to my expectations as a great track. I would love to go back and do it again, in convoy with other trucks and certainly not on my own. Another bucket list track ticked off though. Again, I have to thank High Country Journeys for the opportunity to get safely into this magnificent high country and enjoy the great scenery we can only experience with owning a 4WD.
