The Clyde Dam

With plenty of time left in the day, I stopped at the Clyde Dam lookout. When the dam was completed in 1993, it created Lake Dunstan and proudly holds the title of the country’s largest concrete gravity dam. It stands 102 meters tall, with a base width of 70 meters and a crest length of 490 meters. All of which is fairly small by international dam standards when compared against the Tarbela Dam in Pakistan or the Fort Peck Dam in the United States. But, it is the biggest in New Zealand, and that means something. 

The dam was constructed between 1982 and 1993 to reduce the country’s reliance on imported oil and to fuel industry, but it wasn’t without controversy. The decision to build the dam prompted vehement opposition, a court case, and even required an act of Parliament to get the project across the line. 

All of which means we have a giant dam that produces lots of lovely electricity and a wonderful big lake for swimming, fishing, and boating. But  there are some of us who would prefer to have the old Cromwell Gorge back, with its historic huts and plentiful fruit orchards. I thought about all this as I looked out across the dam. Then, deciding I was probably in the minority I got back in my car and headed down the hill into the nearby town of Clyde.