Invincible Mine and Skippers Canyon

By Jen.

Stewart Island is as far south as we will get in NZ, so all of our travels will be mostly northward from here on out. As we have done a couple of figure 8s of the South Island, we only have a few things left that we really want to do, so we started picking them off as we went north. First up was Invincible Mine.

We had to get to the walk first. I find the ford sign very entertaining.

While the walk supposed to feature a pretty cool mine, I felt it was more appropriately a mushroom walk, as there were tons of many different varieties that lined the path.

When we got up to the mine, they had left a device there that was used to get gold from the leftover tailings.

A surprising amount of the water wheel was still intact.

They apparently had a good view for smoko.

While  most of the mining was from the surface, they did have a few shafts.

There was also a “concentrator”, which was also used to pull gold from the leftovers.

On the way out of the road, we were eye-level with a falcon!

Typical NZ road.

Next on our list was Skippers Canyon, which is known as a 4WD track that is fun. It was a fairly nice gravel road, but narrow and with precipitous drops. I felt like this one should also have that fun parachute sign, but it didn’t. The road leads to an old gold-mining, ghost town, surprisingly there is cell reception there still.

We were going to drive all the way to the town, but at 1.3km out we had to stop because we were overweight for the bridge. Our vehicle masses close to 3900kg at the moment. Didn’t want to risk it, so we parked by the bridge and walked the rest of the way.

Still a lot of the original-construction pieces, but had been reinforced with some modern pieces.

If this area looks familiar, it is because it part of the seen in The Fellowship of the Ring, where Arwen stops the pursuing Nazgul and orcs by summoning a flood down the river. Love that scene! Rescued when they thought all hope was nearly lost.

The old school building.

There was also a lovely historic homestead here as well, until this December when it burned down.

They are in the process of killing off the wilding pines, an invasive species here.

Those level terraces are the result of gold mining here.

Hand-laid retaining walls.

Overall, a very scenic and fun drive. Highly recommend.