This is a place that is a little off the beaten track but well worth a look. Travelling between Geraldine and Fairlie there is a signpost to Ophua Dam. This is an irrigation scheme built several years ago to service the surrounding farms. It also includes a small hydro power station as well as providing recreational activities for boaties, fishermen, campers and picnickers.
It is listed in our camping book so we thought that this would be a good spot to spend a night. Our directions were for making an approach from Fairlie and as we were coming from the Geraldine the directions weren’t quite as clear as they could have been. The next day we found a dedicated picnic spot which would have been nice though our spot by the dam and power station for the night was fine, and we even had a Juicy van for company.
Evidence of the very dry summer that has been experienced can certainly be seen here. The water levels in the dam would be as low as they could possibly be I would say. Even the rain we had just over a week ago had failed to raise the levels.
Here we emptied our holding tanks, before wandering along the main street to buy ourselves a couple of the ‘famous Fairlie pies’ for lunch. Before filling with fuel before heading to our next destination- Omarama, we stopped and viewed this statue of James McKenzie and his dog. This area The McKenzie Country takes it name from this famous sheep rustler back in the mid 1800s.
No comments:
Post a Comment