Afternoon on the Pigroot

My drive back to Dunedin along the well known Pigroot took me from the Maniototo Plains to the Kakanui Ranges before dropping down into the Shag Valley and on to the small town of Palamerston. On the way I stopped at the Pigroot creek bridge near Mount Obi. Back in the 1880s, this was the site of the Pigroot Hotel. Officially named The Halfway House but more commonly known as ‘The Pigroot Hotel’ and run by proprietors John and Isabella Freeland, the popular coaching hotel provided food and accommodation for those travelling to and from the goldfields in Central Otago. That was of course until the Central Otago Railway opened and made travelling easier, quicker and much more comfortable. 

As I left my car in the nearby picnic area , I spied a memorial that had been erected by the descendants of Freelands. After several minutes of imagining what the scene must have been like in the throes of winter backdropped with a busy hotel I eventually manoeuvred my car back onto State Highway 85 later on to Dunedin.