XXXXXXXXXXXX(XXXXXXXXX)MAY 2018 | NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TRAVELLER INDIA 91
NEW ZEALANDOne of us in this 4WD thinks they are about to die. You can
tell who—my poker face is crumbling; the knuckles clutching
the door of the 4WD are chalk white. Guide Chris Hogan is
whistling on the wheel, driving along the Skippers Canyon
Road, on an absurdly narrow path clinging to a near-vertical
cliff wall. One wrong swerve and the car would go tumbling
down into the Shotover River like a plastic toy. “You know,
you’re doing so much better than the last couple I drove here,”
he turns to me. “The man put a shopping bag over his head.”
A perfectly reasonable reaction, if you didn’t count
the backdrop. Queenstown is barely behind us, yet I am
surrounded by undulating brown hills that seem like ocean
waves stunned to stone. Often Chris points to curious rock
formations in the distance; a gorilla with a sloping forehead; an
elephant with its trunk and feet in the air. The Skippers road is
a darling of every “World’s Most Dangerous Roads” list there is,
but Chris rubbishes the claim “because no one has died here.”
He admits that insurance doesn’t cover rental cars here, so only
commercial operators like him end up bringing tourists in.
The route isn’t just another pretty face of New Zealand—it is
its most historic. Part of the Skippers road was hacked by hand
following the Gold Rush, for seven years starting in 1883. It
was here, around the Shotover River below, that the metal was
discovered in 1861, luring hopefuls from around the world to
make their fortunes at the world’s second largest alluvial gold
deposit. Far in the distance, I spot Mount Aurum (aurum is
Latin for gold), carved like a half-moon rising above the valley.
Down at the base of the canyon, the river is eerily silent. I
try to imagine miners from Europe and China sweating away
with their pans and shovels, nurturing families in these
very spots. The river is a robin’s-egg blue and startlingly
clear. Nowadays jetboats bring tourists daily, whizzing
between narrow crags at 85 kmph, doing 360° spins
to make riders squeal. I pocket a pebble for a friend
who collects rocks from around the world. Chris
helps me find one threaded with quartz veins. “It
has gold,” he nods.
Further along, several thousand feet above
us on Coronet Peak, dot-like workers of
ski fields are making snow so the area’s
favourite slope can open in five days. By
afternoon, a cloudy greyness is upon us.
The car is mostly in the Shotover, sending
wild echoes of splashes everywhere. Chris
points out a deserted stretch of bank that
was The Ford of Bruinen in the Lord of the
Rings, the point where Frodo was chased
by the deathly Ringwraiths on horses.
Further ahead, I see someone. A black
figure hunched by the riverbank.
“Someone’s looking for gold!” Chris veers
the car towards the figure.
Tim Bridget, a 40-something Christchurch
resident, is here on vacation. “Don’t get excited,
I haven’t found much,” he smiles sheepishly
when I introduce myself. I sit on my haunches
and notice the grooves on his pan that help separate
gold deposits from the sand. “The key,” says Tim, “is to look for
black sand by the riverbank; it has iron magnetite, which is 17
times heavier than water. Gold is about the same, and you often
find their deposits together.” He hands me another pan and I
imitate how he collects the sand, slowly swirling it clockwise
and anticlockwise, allowing it to be gradually washed away in
the river. I peer into my pan and find six flecks of gold!
Chris gets the cookies and hot chocolate, and we drink by the
river. “I am a history buff, and all New Zealand really has is the
Gold Rush. I save my panned gold in a bottle, and hope to cover
its bottom someday,” grins Tim. Chris recounts how his farmer
friend panned enough gold to make rings for two daughters.
He is still collecting gold for his third.
The last leg of the drive takes us to Arrowtown by the gold-
bearing Arrow River. With its 19th-century cottages and tree-
lined avenues, it seems to be living in the 1860s, when it was
built during the Gold Rush. There’s even a Chinese settlement
by the river, built by Chinese miners in 1868. Our drive ends
back at the Kawarau River. Upstream from the bungee bridge,
shafts of sunlight light up a narrow part of the gorge where the
gigantic Pillars of the Kings rose in LOTR. This is where Frodo
gazed at statues, their left hands raised ominously as warning
to enemies. (www.nomadsafaris.co.nz; adults NZD195/`9,400,
children NZD95/`4,600.)ALL THAT SCARES IS GOLD
Part of the Skippers Canyon
Road was hacked by hand
between 1883 and 1890,
during the Gold Rush.