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.

Gold Fever: Part II - The Arrow River

In the spring of 1862, Jack Tewa, a sheep shearer, found a chunk of gold in the Arrow River just outside of present-day Arrowtown. By the fall of the same year over 1,500 miners had set up shop along the river to lay claim to one of the richest strikes of alluvial gold in history. Here, I followed in their footsteps and tried my luck.

This also happens to be the same area as another Lord of the Rings filming location. This is where the Ringwraiths were swept away while trying to cross the Ford of Bruinen in Fellowship of the Ring.

At first I only found a speck or two but I knew I had the scent. I decided to hike downstream for a while and then I found it. A huge pool that was clearly the remains of a historical dredging operation. Just upriver of this pool was a little island in the middle of the river with a lone shrub growing on it. Little more then a sandbar, I knew that this was a fresh deposit of sediment untouched by other tourists. I waded across the river and started digging into the loose gravel.

When I met the other prospector over at Twelve Mile Delta, one of the things I learned from our conversation was that you won't find black sand at Twelve Mile like you do in most other rivers. Black sand contains iron and is much heavier then most other sediment that you find in a river. In most cases if you don't find black sand you won't find any gold. After a short time, I had dug a cross-section out of the sandbar and could see the layers of sediment. Layers of black sand were clearly visible. I focused on these areas and started to find more specks here and there. Clearly, my luck has improved:

Here is a rough estimate of what I found while panning near Arrowtown.

Time passes very quickly when you are panning for gold. There are some crazy panning competitions where people can go through a pan in under thirty seconds. However, when you are first developing your technique it can take up to half an hour to sift through a single pan. Even after all that work you can come up empty, which is discouraging. But once you start finding two or three specks of gold after each attempt, you start to lose all sense of time as you work from pan to pan. After spending three or four hours down on the river it started to get dark and we wanted to make it to Kawarau Gorge in time to watch some bungee jumping!

Gold Fever: Part I - Sam Summer's Hut

When you are waiting to use the port-a-loo at Twelve Mile Delta, chances are you will pass the time reading an ad to rent fossicking equipment from the camp manager. As it turns out, Twelve Mile Creek and the delta are one of the few places you can publicly fossick for gold in New Zealand. We decided to give it a go and rented a gold pan and a shovel.

After a short lesson on the theory of gold panning we tried our luck around camp without any success. The next day I went on a hike up Twelve Mile Creek to Sam Summer's hut and tried panning along the creek. Once again, things didn't "pan" out but I got some great pictures and had a good time:

Sam Summer's hut was built with the help of his brothers in 1930. He used it as a base of operations while prospecting and hunting for food. The hut and outhouse have been maintained by the Department of Conservation and if you are feeling a bit adventurous you can spend the night in burlap bunks.

After my hike, we went into town to use the internet and I learned that my technique was all wrong. At this point I decided to save some money and buy a pan rather then rent one. On my second trip up the creek I met a fellow prospector who was using a sluice box. He was finding a few flakes where he was working and gave me a few pointers. Despite all that, I didn't find anything on that trip either.

In this case it is true what they say - third time's a charm. I convinced Jasmine (my lucky charm) to go with me on one last hike before leaving the delta. We rented a pan for her and off we went. Once we got there, Jasmine decided that the water was too cold and the sandflies were too many. Despite that, she patiently waited while I worked up and down the bank. Finally, just as I was about to give up, I found my first speck of gold. It seemed like the worst time to quit but I was happy with my find and knew that Jasmine must be getting bored. We kept the speck in Jasmine's contact case and headed back to the van.

It was a pretty amazing feeling- very similar to winning a large pot in poker. At this point I was hooked.

My first speck of gold next to a USB drive for size comparison.

This little discovery would mark the beginning of my short career as a gold miner!