Sunday 03 February

Slab Hut DoC Campsite, near to Reefton
We were awake quite early this morning and took an hour long walk through the forest, a circuit which continued past the Cemetery in a loop returning to the Campsite. It was so beautiful, winding our way through the dense trees, over small streams oozing out of the rock and then tumbling down to join the torrent in the valley below us. We wanted to find the site where the settlers had panhandled (fossicked) for gold, but either missed the sign or it wasn't there. The walk ended with a narrow bridge swaying over the main gorge, I thought I was quite brave getting across it on my own.
It's lunchtime and the first time so far I've put an entry in during the day. We have moved a bit further south to another DoC site in another old gold mining area. This one is much nicer, much more secluded and it has 2 flush toilets, but no drinking water. In the DoC handbook it is shown as only having water from the stream, but as we have found on other sites a pipe from the stream with a tap has been installed. Fortunately we stocked up well with drinking water, probably enough for 3 more nights, but we might run out of beer if we don't get to a town before that. It's a very long weekend in NZ, tomorrow is a Regional Holiday for this area and Wednesday is a National Holiday, so quite a few people here will take Tuesday off as well.
So we have pitched up at this site and it is very hot, so we've put the sun awning out on the van and are having a quiet day. I keep calling it a van but it really is just a car. We got here quite early in the day and have a nice bay to pitch in but it is filling up fast now as some larger vans trundle in. There isn't any electricity so they will need to use their backup batteries to stay here. We picked up a discarded newspaper and the weather forecast in it is more or less what people have been telling us, rain is on the way. Apart from the heat that doesn't seem likely at the moment, it is supposed to be overnight and tomorrow, so the test for us and the car/van is yet to come.
The sand flies at the last campsite were pretty terrible this morning, there aren't any here yet but they tend to die off in the heat of the day and concentrate their efforts in the evenings and first thing in the mornings. I think that if I lived here it is something I would find it hard to get used to.
17.15
We have moved pitches, it is an advantage of the van/car, it is easier to move around than having to strike and re-pitch a tent. I had a walk around and spotted a little corner, tucked away by the river where previous occupants had collected stones to build a fire. We have just BBQd our supper on it. We had beef tonight which was better than the lamb we had last night. The sand flies have come, but they are not as bad as last night (yet). There are a few pools of stagnant water by the river so we might be in for a few mossies as well. We tried our hand at fossicking this afternoon, digging sand and stones out of the shallow river bed and then washing it to see if there are any flakes of gold in it. It is a slow, laborious process and suffice to say our single attempt did not yield a single flake. John spoke to some other people camping here who also had had little success, but evidently another group who have been here some time and spent all the time fossicking have over $100 worth.
This spot is idyllic, quite the nicest place we have camped yet and provided the rain stays away we will stay here for another night, maybe have another go at prospecting.