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

Milton

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… from a Small City: Travels In Small-Town New Zealand

… from a Small City: Travels In Small-Town New Zealand is a delightful jaunt around the backroads and towns of Otago and Southland. Rediscovering and exploring the quirks, charms, curiosities and forgotten points of interest of small-town Otago – Southland.

Daily Photo – Milton

I rolled through the town of Milton just as the clouds turned an ominous shade of grey and threatened rain. The place was quiet, with people hurriedly moving between shops, dashing from vehicle to shop and back again. At the far end of the main street, I could see a long traffic queue had formed due to distant roadworks. With traffic at a standstill, I pulled over and walked a short distance down the street, observing life in a small country town.

Generally speaking, most New Zealand towns are made up of a single long main street, with all the major shops branching off it. The main street also doubles as the highway, so in most cases you’re forced to drive through the centre of town, which is rather clever when you think about it.

There are several things you can guarantee every town has: namely a pub, a grocery store, a disused post office or bank, and a petrol station that is also home to the local mechanic – whose name is probably Barry or Scottie and who will no doubt have a faded Playboy centrefold from the 1980s or 1990s hanging in a not-too-conspicuous position somewhere inside the workshop. There’ll be a store of some description that sells and services large farm machinery, and some other completely random business called Arthur’s Antiques, Helen’s Haberdashery, Katie’s Knitting & Yarn Boutique, or Tim’s Terrific Trades for Trash.

The interesting thing about Milton is the famous dog-leg that runs about halfway along the main street. The funny thing is, nobody is completely sure why it’s there. What it proves is that it is indeed possible to fail at building a straight road on a completely flat piece of land with no immediate obstacles – while surveyors stand at each end to mark out a straight line. Either that, or the person drawing up the plans did so from thousands of kilometres away, had no idea of the surrounding landscape, and mistook a crumb on the map for a land feature that needed to be avoided.

Whatever the reason, it provides the town with an interesting talking point, something I was to discover other towns could well do with.

Aotearoa, Milton, South Island, South Otago, Wild Horses

Milton

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Tokomairiro Presbyterian Church

The thing about small towns in New Zealand is—they really are just that: small towns. I don’t mean that in a mean, rude, or malicious way. I simply mean that’s what they are. Where once they may have been thriving hubs of industry with a lot going on, most of those big industries have long since moved. These days, apart from being home to people going about their daily lives, many of these towns have become more like places to pass through or maybe stop for a spot of lunch.

Take the small South Island town of Milton. I’m not saying Milton is a bad place, far from it. I quite like the town. I’ve stopped there many times and enjoyed wandering up and down the main street. But here’s the thing: with tourists flocking to the South Island to go bungy jumping, skiing, or hiking in the wilderness, strolling around Milton’s main street isn’t likely to make anyone’s top ten list.

Yet, I quite like wandering in small towns. There’s something rather splendid about ambling through with no particular purpose, then stumbling across a tearoom to rest for a while before continuing the journey. I hope they last for a long time to come.