Gold Fever: Part III - Louis Creek

After an eight hour drive from Moeraki, we spent the last night of our trip at Kawatiri Junction (about an hour south of Nelson). The next morning, we were on our way to Louis Creek for one more hit of gold fever. We were pretty tired at this point and, if you can believe it, didn't take any pictures... It was quite an adventure though.

Initially, we planned to go panning at New Creek, but a sign for the road it was on told us that it was unmaintained and that any vehicle without four wheel drive should not make the attempt. In fact, we got stuck just trying to turn around. After dislodging the van, we made it to the road for Louis Creek and were met with a similar but less dire warning (4WD needed in wet conditions). But after crossing a ford, and anxious to start panning, we went for it.

Part of the road was cut into the bedrock and Jasmine described the drive in her journal as a terrifying real-life Indiana Jones ride. Although it wasn't muddy, there were huge grooves in the road that had to be avoided at all costs. When we got to a point where I could safely pull over, we did. Up ahead of us was a bridge over a ditch. Wide tracks were filled with water and I felt we had pushed our luck enough. We decided to continue on foot.

I'm glad we stopped. Crossing that little bridge was a muddy affair and I don't want to think about what would have happened if we got stuck. Luckily we weren't far from the trail-head and after a few minutes we were panning for gold. A few hours later, we were ready to call it a day after processing one last bucket. This was when I found a monster flake:

OK, so it isn't the mother of all nuggets but compared to my first speck (on the right) it is massive!

I credit Jasmine as my good luck charm as she was the one who collected that bucket. We headed back to Nelson and took some time to relax. A week or so later, the gold bug still had ahold of me. I returned to Louis Creek on my own. This time I parked at a nearby campground and hiked in. While I didn't find anything on the scale of my big find (probably due to leaving behind my lucky charm), I still had fun.

As winter rolls around and my duties at camp have started to pick up, I am done panning for awhile. Panning for gold is a lot of hard work and cannot be considered profitable. In the end, it is really just about getting out into nature and learning about geology.

Here is my 'pile', maybe $1-2 worth of the good stuff. To me, it is priceless.