Big flood

As Paul Metsers would say in the song 'Farewell to the Gold' - there was a terrible flood... Yes, indeed - a little while ago it rained and rained for about two days straight and the River got higher and higher until... Whoosh... It bust the man made pebble banks that were made to protect the town.

Now, I can't remember whether it was before or after the flood, but apparently it was reported on the evening news that someone had found a rather large nugget of gold... Actually I do remember - the news report was before the flood, because the Sunday after the flood I took a walk up Sawpit Gully, and some kids were out with a pan and a shovel - they must have been inspired by the big find! The river was still high and they were looking in the wrong place, but they were having fun :)

That big flood's got me thinking that there's probably a heap of new gold to be found out there... ;)

Henry finds more gold

In the Mountain Scene this week, there's mention of Henry Geerlings again. Apparently, he's found two more nuggets in the past month or two including one at three grams and one at four grams! He's on a roll, and proving that there's gold for the taking out there...!

The frustrations of puritanical media channels...

Well, this is just a quick note to say that if anyone is trying to view the 1st and 5th video in 'Day 1' then you can't anymore. You will get the same message I'm getting - 'We're sorry this video is no longer available'.

Why? Well, I pondered that same question for a couple of hours myself until I wondered if anyone might take offence to the word 'crap' or 'hell'... And, it would seem that somebody really does have a problem with those words, which is curious because I'm from the British Isles and 'crap' is old slang for money (or gold), so... when I say crap I'm referring to gold, and when I say 'hell' I'm referring to the chain of pizza restaurants here in New Zealand... Go figure eh?!

As Oscar Wilde once said about America and Britain - 'Two nations divided by a common language'.

So anyway, I'll repost the videos as '1st video - the puritanical director's cut' and '5th video - une homage to Oscar'...

:)

Gold-folk-music to listen to along the way...

So, there I was listening to Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour - the show was called 'Money' and half way through he played a song by Nic jones from the 1980's called 'Farewell to the Gold' about the life of a gold prospector in Otago in the 1800's...!






What an awesome song... Of course I'm hoping I don't meet the same fate as the guys in the song, and Henry Geerlings and many others have found way to much gold in the area to want to 'pack up my bags and make the break clean'... But I'll certainly be sticking it on the ipod as I make my out the the first trip up the Shotover... :)

end of the first day...

Thousands and millions of tiny pieces of...

Gold takes the shortest route down-river

Flecks of gold!

Black sand & sandflies... Part 1

Look what Henry found...

In 2006, Henry Geerlings found a lump of gold that weighed 8.8 ounces in the Arrow River (that's US$8,800 to you and me).
He is quoted on the New Zealand Herald website as saying "I was standing in the middle of the river, shouting, 'no way, no way, I don't believe this is happening', and my voice was echoing back off the hills... The big ones are out there, it's just a matter of finding them."

Welcome to the South Island of New Zealand Gold panning

Welcome to the Gold Digger Diaries!... I suppose you've seen the price of gold recently? Well, I guess that must be the reason why I'm seeing more and more people walking towards the river with a shovel and a gold pan in hand... This is my journey as I look to get a bit of that gold panning action...