#dailyat6am, #fromtheroad, Kyeburn, Travels in small-town New Zealand, Wild Horses

Waipiata-Kyeburn Road, Kyeburn

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Daily Photo – Waipiata-Kyeburn Road, Kyeburn

To call Kyeburn a settlement is stretching things a little. Technically true, geographically accurate, but a touch misleading. Look it up on the map and you’ll find it tucked along State Highway 85 in Central Otago. But drive through, and you quickly realise it’s more an idea than a town. You pass a lone house here, a weathered cemetery there, the occasional gravel driveway leading past the crumbling remains of long-abandoned buildings. And then, just when you think the land is empty, the Central Otago Rail Trail threads its way across the Maniototo – a reminder that people do, in fact, come this way, though maybe not in droves.

But that’s the delightful thing about Central Otago, and in particular the Maniototo region: it’s the lack of anything at all that makes it so wonderful. You don’t arrive in places like Lauder, Becks, Waipiata, Ranfurly, Wedderburn, or Kyeburn and immediately start looking for a Westfield Mall to get your nails done or replace your phone battery. Instead, you slow down, breathe in the crisp air, watch the light shift across the tussock, and let the quiet, wide-open spaces do their work. Kyeburn is the kind of place where you spot a track and think, “Now I wonder what’s down there,” and off you go with little more than a jersey, sturdy footwear, and an inquisitive mindset – and that’s exactly what I did.

#dailyat6am, Kyeburn, Travels in small-town New Zealand, Wild Horses

Kyeburn

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Daily Photo – Kyeburn

Of all the things to come out of Kyeburn recently, by far the most remarkable happened in March of 2019, when a local discovered a series of moa footprints in the Kyeburn River. Experts from Tūhura Otago Museum were altered, the river diverted, and the footprints carefully removed to Dunedin. After study, the fossilised trackway was confirmed as the first of its kind known in the South Island and the second-oldest evidence of moa in New Zealand, dating back around 3.6 million years. 

Just think about that for a moment. Some 3.6 million years ago, a heavy-footed moa clumsily wandered across soft river mud, leaving footprints at just the right moment when the ground was firm enough to hold them. By sheer luck, nature quickly covered them with a fresh layer of sediment, shielding the prints from rain, wind, and any other wandering feet. Over millions of years the mud hardened to stone, only to be revealed by the river, just in time for a man named Michael to stumble upon them while walking his dog. Practically speaking, the chances of that happening are astronomically low. 

Of course, when I arrived in Kyeburn, the only thing I found was a hard frost.

Aotearoa, Kyeburn, Mount Pisgah, The Pigroot, Travel, Wild Horses

Mount Pisgah on The Pigroot

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Mount Pisgah on The Pigroot

Just why it is called ‘The Pigroot’ remains a mystery, yet there are many theories. One of the more popular stories behind the name is that back in the goldrush of the 1860s, 70 and 80s, it’s said, wild pigs would often approach the miners’ and their horses. Another is that the slippery consistency of the clay on the hills reminded the miners of the muck in a pig root. Yet another is that in the 1860s and 70s, the stagecoaches and bullock-carts transporting miners to and from the gold fields was so awful that it was commonly described as a pig of a root to travel on. Whatever the reason behind the name, it was this road that I now travelled along leaving the mist and fog behind and now accompanied by clear blue skies.

Aotearoa, Danseys Pass, Kyeburn, Maniototo, Travel, Wild Horses

Fog At Kyeburn

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Fog At Kyeburn

The scene before me conveyed a sense of isolation and quiet stillness. In the distance a solitary, tall tree stood in the middle of an open, fog-covered field. The tree’s bare branches and the landscape around it appeared empty and quiet. The dense fog muted the background, creating a dreamy, atmosphere that only emphasised a lone presence in the vastness. Taking a last look at the silent, dreamy expanse I turned back towards my car before continuing the journey home.

Danseys Pass, Dnseys Pass, Kyeburn, Maniototo, Wild Horses

Fog On The Maniototo

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Fog on the Maniototo

I had left Naseby under the assumption I would drive straight home. Well, as straight as you can when you have to cover a distance of 135 kilometres and travel on two different state highways! Retracing my drive through the Pigroot, it wasn’t long before I was once again engulfed in brainsucking, apocalyptic fog. It also wasn’t long before I came across the turn off to Danseys Pass. Located in the Kakanui Ranges, the mountain pass was first used in the 1850’s to link rural towns in the Maniototo region with rural places on the other side of the ranges like Duntroon and Kurow. For a moment I considered taking this a very major detour of venturing up through the pass and returning home to Dunedin via Oamaru. While I was pondering this option on the side of the road, I became aware of the presence of a farm shed lost in the mist and fog that made the decision for me. There, standing alone in the fog, was an old, weathered metal barn. A power pole stood nearby, its wires cutting through the misty air,  the ground damp from the heavy dew stretching into the fog.

Aotearoa, Central Otago, Kyeburn, Maniototo, Travel, Wild Horses

Kyeburn

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The Corner of Ridge and Kyeburn/Ranfurly Road near Kyeburn

I reached Kyeburn, a small rural settlement on the wide Maniototo plains which stands at the junction of several state highways. Here the mist started to lift a little, for a moment giving a glimpse of the surrounding fields. It was about the time I was passing through Kyeburn that I became hopeful that I might come across some curling at my final destination of Naseby. Recently, I had read that due to the prolonged low temperatures and formation of thick ice, several curling competitions had been held in the area and the current conditions I was passing through gave the indication that the run of low temperatures would continue for some time yet.

Aotearoa, Central Otago, Kyeburn, Maniototo, Travel, Wild Horses

Mist On State Highway 85

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Mist on State Highway 85

Leaving Dunedin I headed north for nearly an hour. The mid-morning traffic was light and I was pleased to find that apart from an occasional ute or truck, I mostly had the road to myself. This was a pleasant surprise as having driven this particular section of State Highway 1 between Dunedin and Palmerston enough times to do it blindfolded, I can tell you this isn’t always the case. Usually the road is filled with campervans, trucks and vehicles whose primary objective seems to be to frustrate me until I develop a healthy dose of road rage. However, on this occasion I arrived in the small town of Palmerston with relatively low blood pressure and that’s always a bonus. At Palmerston, I left State Highway 1, turned on to State Highway 85, heading inland for Central Otago and Naseby. More commonly known as the Pigroot (although no-one knows just why), I made my way over the Kakanui Ranges before dropping down onto the Maniototo Plains. Which is where I once again found the brainsucking, apocalyptic fog.

With the world having disappeared into a world of mist and fog and visibility reduced to a ten  metre bubble surrounding my car, I slowed to a speed that would give me enough time to dodge anything that might suddenly appear in front of me. This also meant I could enjoy looking at the heavy layer of frost that had settled on the fence lines that ran alongside the road. This continued for some time and at my slow speed, it also gave me the time to decide just what it was that I was going to do in Naseby. Until that moment, I didn’t actually know.