Photos by Region ~ North Otago

Palmerston’s (Boer) war memorial is centre stage in the town, and Zealandia (for thus is she named on the pedestal) here holds up a fractured hand. I tried to line her up with the out-of-focus Jock McKenzie memorial sitting in her palm, but a pesky Give Way sign got in the way, and this was as close as I could get her. An elegant and flowing, indeed rather beautiful marble sculpture, is this not, and I think underappreciated; it would surely grace the steps of parliament, or the national war memorial. The material is Carrara marble, carved in Italy by the Bergamini family, and finished in New Zealand by Carlo Bergamini.

The 1929 monument on Puketapu hill to Sir Jock McKenzie, an ardent supporter of East Otago farmers a century or more ago. An annual race from Palmerston to the top, “Kelly’s canter”, honours a local policeman who used to run to the peak to look out over the sea for enemy activity during World War II. Your photographer does not expect to canter. [photo temporarily borrowed from Palmerston website]

More limestone miners, here panning for gold by Highway 1 in Palmerston, alongside their humble hut

St James’s Presbyterian church, Palmerston, on Highway 85, is a most handsome example of the type.

Catholic Church of the Blessed Sacrament, on the main highway at Palmerston. A simple 1920s elegance of Oamaru limestone on breccia.

St Mary’s Anglican Church, Palmerston, Stromness St. A little honey, guarded by an enormous fir tree.  In recent years, it has catered also for parishioners from Hampden, whose 131 year old church (see below) had to close in 2012, due to a declining congregation. Some bricking, and plastic spouting, intruding on the stonework.

The Declaration Stone for this War Memorial at Waikouaiti was laid by a lady of the same surname as one of those who “served King and Country”. We may suppose a link.

Are these not the most handsome bridges on all of Highway 1? And yet driving through Waianakarua at 100 km/hr you’d never know. This magnificent structure was completed as long ago as 1874. To quote Geoffrey Thornton, “the skill of the masons is displayed in the superb limestone work. This is enhanced by the construction of the skew arches, in which the axis of the bridge is oblique to the river. The limestone is dressed and laid as ashlar but the voussoirs are reticulated and are more visible”. (A voussoir, don’t you know, is a wedge-shaped stone as part of an arch, with its long axis perpendicular to the tangent of the arch.)

And the railway bridge alongside, space enough for double tracking.

Here, its slightly older sibling (1869) on the south branch of the Waianakarua river, and designed, as you may easily appreciate, by the same engineer, Mr. J.T. Thompson. He has style, does he not! One cannot say the same for the 20th century engineers who subsequently widened the carriageway with bland concrete slabs. (El Nino dictating very little river flow, on this day in late 2015.)

And the other railway bridge a little downstream along the river. (A subsequent unsubtle hunk of concrete to strengther the rail support.) Below, framed by one of the road bridge arches.

The old Mill House by the bridge, its authentic old age (actually, from 1879) attested by the cross-shaped iron anchor plate of Victorian construction method, visible on the wall, and here, in evening light, with Christmas lights a-twinkle

This barn on the Pig Root out of Palmerston had been in danger of collapse, but a sympathetic restoration now sees it as a jewel along the way.

The beautiful Bowker’s bridge, now sadly lacking a few stones, has been free of traffic since 1962, and is worth a turn-off as you cross its younger successor. As the sign nearby notes, this is the last remaining of the original arched bridges on the old coach road to Central Otago. The upstream view shows a concretion acquired later in its life, which may be sustaining its continued existence. All strength to the Palmerston Lions in their restoration work!

Dunback Inn, a Speights stop on the Pig Root. The mortar might have been sourced from the former quarry nearby.

The former Dunback railway line to the former quarry. The 45 km/hr advisory well advised, the better to admire the embankment as one drives by.

More skilled stonework on the old Dunback railway line, this former bridge.

A splended pile, Waihemo Grange, only just visible as you pass over a bridge on the Pig Root; but one can distinguish that it is indeed of stone. (And indeed, the Heritage NZ website records that schist for its construction had been quarried from nearby, and also that the house has a Category II historic status.)

St John’s church, Herbert, from 1875, another of RA Lawson’s portofolio, and a Grade 2 Historic Places category. This photo below in evening light manages a 19th century gloom.

The Hampden Community Centre of (relatively) recent vintage

The former church at Hampden has its main stone of a honey-brown colour, contrasting most attractively with the white Oamaru corner stones.

This bridge must have been, I imagine, the main road, but now a little to one side of highway 1. Paddocks on either side, but the bridge itself has a tarseal surface, apparently for the use only of farm machinery and animals. An answer to the North Island's bridge to nowhere? It looks as though it should last forever.

This exquisite church, straight out of medieval England, as it would seem -- and yet built as recently as 1938-39 -- is St Andrew's at Maheno. Rich red and browns; I had to show this. The Sunday School across the road is, I imagine, 1940s plain style; but still in stone.

And adjacent, the Maheno War Memorial

Totara Estate, a little to the south of Oamaru, is an historical site, celebrating the first shipment of frozen meat from New Zealand, and the herald of a trade that would underpin the country's prosperity for the century and more since. 1957 was the 75th anniversary; the other entrance gate has 1882, the year of that first shipment.

And a little south of Totara, the extraordinary Clarks Mill. As well as the fairly plain Oamaru stonework, the woodwork of the intricate mechinery inside is (to that sort of eye) rather beautiful. They even have operating days, which I must attend. The exposed cliff on the hill behind seems of similar material. The villa and cottage adjacent have had their stonework painted; the result quite appealing, in an old-fashioned way, white and green.

A fence built by Totara workers in their 'spare time'. Contributor: Bruce Comfort.

Katiki-by-the-sea. Stonework at a farm's entrance.

Another former church now leading a domestic life, this one at Pukeuri, just north of Oamaru

Fences and a gate along Highway 1, approaching Oamaru from the south.

Rather good to see that there are still people who are prepared to build a folly! The owner of Riverstone, very near the northern boundary of Otago on Highway 1, had, as I gather, always wanted to live in a castle as a child, and is now in a position to realise her childhood dream. In Oamaru stone, naturally. And moated (not even Larnach Castle has a moat). Construction well under way here, in October 2015.

St Alban's church at Kurow is a most splendid pile, from Anno Domini 1892; and around the back, a shed with upper level storage (but a satellite dish?!)

I don't suppose this is the National Bank, Kurow branch, any longer.

The shop itself an antique, in Kurow's main street. The large blocks of (I presume) Oamaru stone each clearly discernible; the pub nearby may be the same, but the orange paintwork rather concealing.

Old(ish) and new in Kurow's main street.

This little church at Awamoko, built 1926, appears abandoned, but the stonework seems in good condition. Will someone come to love it? Being advertised on TradeMe in 2014 a comedown from its glory days.

A carefully built fence, and stone house just visible through the greenery, on the Waitaki Valley Road

St Martin's at Duntroon an extraordinary castellated church, here in such a tiny community.

According to the sign here, Wharekuri in the upper Waitaki Valley was a busy village in 1865, and a school here in 1889 had 24 pupils. Now, just a ruin. Here, the former hotel.

Tarras, at the southern entry to the Lindis Pass, signs on.

A farm shed in Tarras that has grown Topsy-like, as it would appear, from its original stone dwelling.

The owners of Longslip Station along the Lindis commendably displaying their sense of history.

You need to take the charmingly named Old Faithfull Road (note the double ll) off the main highway near Tarras to find the remains of the Lindis Pass Hotel, which fortunately has had recent (2011) restoration and stabilisation. It's a DOC campsite; very properly, campers need to show respect, and not set up their tents any closer than 20 m from the hotel. Contributor: Lynette Houston.

For a mile or more, these stone piles, Daddy, Mummy, and baby sizes, sit alongside the Lindis Pass highway. A phantom cairn-builder? A former movie set? Or just neatly piled unwanted stones? (Had this photo been in colour, a glorious vision of purple, blue, carmine, rose, and butter lupins in the background would have been discernible. On this sunny December day, at their height of flowering, the lupin verges along most of the Lindis Pass road were quite stunning.)

A leaping trout and a ram may in some wise personify Omarama, although a glider in Oamaru stone, while structurally more challenging to have mounted, might have been a more individualistic touch. The bird (unnoticed until I prepared the photo for the website) is perhaps making some amends.

St Thomas's church at Omarama is a rare example of a new church built in old materials, albeit of quite modern style, and the stone unmortared at the surface. The little bell tower may be a nod to her ancestral cousins illustrated elsewhere in this document

An imposing gate in black marble along the Lake Ohau road, the lake perfectly mirrored.

Lake Ohau Lodge is, to my knowledge, at latitude 44 degrees 22 minutes south, the northernmost example of stonework in Otago. Here, the mountains at the head of the lake are reflected.

OK, another gratutious pretty colour shot, taken driving up to Lake Ohau Lodge. Looking up the lake, Otago to the left, Canterbury to the right.

A map of the Waitaki District (from the Waitaki District website)