old gold mining history

Over the last little while I've been exploring some of our local gold mining history of Central Otago. The remains of the old settlements from a completely different era really capture my imagination. The land is completely changed by man from forested slopes to barren, dessert like hills and scarred cliff faces. It's hard to imagine there ever being thriving, humming communities in these parts. But there were!

Nowadays there's still gold in these hills, but we call it Pinot Noir ;-)