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Purakaunui Falls, Purakaunui River, The Catlins, Travel

The Purakaunui River

June 10, 2024 John Caswell 1 Comment

The Purakaunui River

The Purakaunui Falls really is a treat. On the way to the iconic location you not only get to walk through a wonderfully timeless beech and podcrap forest, but you follow the Purakaunui River as well. This means that you pass smaller waterfalls as the river twists and turns its way through the bush.

About: John Caswell

Born in the Auckland, John has been working as a photographer since the mid 1990's. During that time he has travelled and photographed throughout New Zealand and overseas. In 2009, John founded Caswell Images and in 2019 he started his photoblog ... from a Small City to tell the stories of his travels around New Zealand through both words and images. John's daily blog ... from a Small City now attracts an audience of thousands of regular visitors.

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… from a Small City. Photographing and writing about cities, towns, forgotten points of interest and the curiosities of my island home.

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John Caswell

fromasmallcity
Fenceline In Tussock … from a Small City. A lan Fenceline In Tussock … from a Small City. A landscape from one of my trips into Central Otago. Visits to areas like this seem to be becoming more frequent for me. I’m not sure why, maybe it has something to do with capturing the sparse beauty that seems like it comes from another world. Check it out right here: https://fromasmallcity.nz/ (link in bio) #fromasmallcity #johncaswellnz
Sunrise Over Lawyers Head … from a Small City. Sunrise Over Lawyers Head … from a Small City. Sunrise over Dunedin’s Lawyers Head from St Kilda Beach on a clear, spring morning. Check it out right here: https://fromasmallcity.nz/ (link in bio) #fromasmallcity #johncaswellnz
The Remarkables … from a Small City. I was stay The Remarkables … from a Small City. I was staying the night in Frankton near Queenstown in South Islands Lakes District. In the last few years the development and growth in Frankton has been quite amazing. So, I found myself staying there the night before an early morning flight from Queenstown Airport the next morning. Late in the afternoon I went for a walk on a section of the Twins River Trail which is part of the Queenstown Great Ride’ network that follows the iconic Kawarau and Shotover Rivers and provides wonderful views of The Remarkables. Check it out right here: https://fromasmallcity.nz/ #fromasmallcity #johncaswellnz
The Marlborough Sounds … from a Small City. A g The Marlborough Sounds … from a Small City. A gentle, early morning boat ride through the Marlborough Sounds really is quite a delightful thing. Then, you hit the Cook Strait where it can get a little rough. Check it out right here: https://fromasmallcity.nz/ #fromasmallcity #johncaswellnz
Numbers in Palmerston North … from a Small City. Numbers in Palmerston North … from a Small City. Titled ‘Numbers’ and created by New Zealand artist Anton Parsons, it was the first sculpture commissioned by the Palmerston North Sculpture Trust. Unveiled in 2007, ‘Numbers’ was created from a series of stainless steel boxes that create a never ending loop of numbers. Check it out right here: https://fromasmallcity.nz/ #fromasmallcity #johncaswellnz
A Very Brief History Of The Lupinus Polyphyllus … from a Small City. We can thank horticulturist and Yorkshireman George Russell for the wonderful range of colours we see in today’s Lupins. However, the story starts further back with a Scottish botanist called David Douglas. After being recommended by London’s Royal Horticultural Society, Douglas went on a plant-hunting expedition in the Pacific Northwest in 1824. Two years later, when returned home, he brought with him many new species of plants, which included the predominantly blue and white Lupinus Polyphyllus (or Lupin). Then, in 1911 at the Coronation of King George V, George decided he didn’t particularly like the blue and white coloured Lupins that were on display. So, he spent the next twenty six years of his life collecting and crossing different Lupin to develop a more colourful species that was exhibited for the first time at the Chelsea flower show in 1936. This new species would become known as the Russell Lupin and was exported all over the world. Check it out right here: https://fromasmallcity.nz/ #fromasmallcity #johncaswellnz
Pompallier House In Russell … from a Small City. Pompallier House In Russell … from a Small City. When ships started stopping off at some of the more well known bays and inlets around New Zealand in the early 1800’s, they brought plenty of goods to trade with local Māori. Local iwi eagerly provided items such as fish, pork, kumara, freshwater and women for items such as guns, and blankets. However, when the ships were in port and their crews were set loose on shore-leave, they also brought other interests with them such as grogshops and brothels. Both of which did a roaring trade. In fact, life in some of the bays around New Zealand became fairly rough and rowdy. Nowhere was this more evident than at a place in the Bay of Islands called Kororāreka (Russell). In Kororāreka, such was the unruly behaviour that when Charles Darwin visited in the summer of 1835/1836 he declared the place the “hellhole of the pacific”. So, to help sort out all the miss-behaviour, Missionaries were sent to New Zealand and when they arrived they had two main goals. Firstly, to introduce christianity to Māori and secondly to try and keep law and order among the European settlers. One of these Missionaries was French Bishop Jean Baptiste François Pompallier who arrived in January 1839. Pompallier quickly got to work and by the end of 1844 he had setup Missionaries in Hokianga Whangaroa, Kaipara, Tauranga, Akaroa, Matamata, Ōpōtiki, Auckland, Wellington, Rotorua and Whakatāne, with his headquarters being Kororāreka. At his headquarters at Pompallier House (built in 1842), he developed a printing press that translated church texts from Latin to te reo Māori. They were then printed, bound and distributed around the country. Producing a staggering 40,000 books, the missionary at Pompallier House had a major effect on the development of literacy around the country.Pompallier House In RussellPompallier House In Russell Check it out right here: https://fromasmallcity.nz/ #fromasmallcity #johncaswellnz
The Blue Lake of St Bathans … from a Small City. The Blue Lake of St Bathans … from a Small City. When Gold was discovered in Otago by Australian Gabirel Reid, in 1861, it started what was to become known as the Great Otago Rush. The rush brought miners from all over the world to the Otago region who steadily made their way inland as the hunt for gold, fame and fortune took them all over the barren hills of the Central Otago landscape. By around 1863, the search for gold had brought miners to an area known as Dunstan Creek, a place now called St Bathans, and a town quickly grew. The famous Vulcan Hotel was built in the area in 1882 and by 1887, the place had developed into a bustling town of over 2000 people. In the area, one of the main ways to search for gold was by sluicing, where powerful jets of water are blasted at banks that wash gravel into sluice boxes. The boxes then trap the gold at the bottom of the box. In St Bathans, this method was so popular that the nearby Kildare Hill was transformed into a 168 metre deep pit. It was only when the pit started getting too close to the town that mining was halted in 1934. Once mining was stopped, the huge hole was filled with water which created the beautiful blue lake that we see today. Check it out right here: https://fromasmallcity.nz/ #fromasmallcity #johncaswellnz
St Joseph’s Cathedral On A Spring Morning … fr St Joseph’s Cathedral On A Spring Morning … from a Small City. It’s that wonderful time of year when the morning sun is starting to have a tiny bit more heat in it as it rises over the Dunedin Hills along the Peninsula. With the changing of seasons from Winter to Spring, the early morning sun when accompanied by clear, cloudless mornings creates a lovely dawn glow as it strikes the front of the various buildings around the city centre. The other morning I managed to catch the last of the early morning sun hitting St Joseph’s Cathedral before it disappeared behind a large bank of cloud. Check it out right here: https://fromasmallcity.nz/ #fromasmallcity #johncaswellnz #dunnerstunner
Predawn On The Esplanade … from a Small City. P Predawn On The Esplanade … from a Small City. Predawn on the Esplanade in St Clair giving those early risers a beautiful backdrop to start the day. Check it out right here: https://fromasmallcity.nz/ #fromasmallcity #johncaswellnz #dunnerstunner
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