Going back to the past, we visited Kookynie – part of the 965km Golden Quest Discovery Trail. Once a vibrant community, a town of more than 3500 people back in 1907 during golden mining rush, now it is a deserted town with no more than 20 people (although, the town boasts Grand Hotel that is still in operation, offering meals, drinks and overnight accommodation to visitors and locals).
In the old days, Kookynie had 11 (!) hotels, a Town Hall which held regular Saturday night entertainment activities, the first public swimming pool in the Goldfields, a number of businesses and public facilities and even its own brewery and soft drink manufacturers! Many of its buildings are now gone completely or ruined but the memories and stories still live displayed through remnants of buildings and interpretive signs.
In the past Kookynie was one of the many towns in this area that attracted a lot of gold mining prospectors. As people still go out to these places and do actually manage to find gold, our kids were seriously hoping to become modern day prospectors and find gold too!
While the kids were busy looking for gold, the adults wandered about the deserted place, each deep in their own reflections….
Kids were fascinated with a number of old antique rusty cars that seemed become part of the landscape quite long time ago. How much fun it is to climb on top of one such car!
…. or to sit inside and steer the wheel!
A few kilometres further away from Kookynie is Niagara Dam, which was built in 1897 to provide water for the nearby town and the steam engines during the early goldrush days. It became redundant a few years later when plentiful underground water was discovered at Kookynie.
Now Niagara Dam is a popular picnic spot, offering wonderful opportunities for photography.
It is also a free camp spot with toilets, gas barbeque, picnic tables, and cement fire rings. Sounds like a perfect place for our next camping trip!
The sun was setting down, which meant it was time to go back to Morapoi Station and prepare for the night.