Kumara

Many times we've driven through Kumara on the way to somewhere else. We've never stopped there - just slowed down to the speed limit and driven through. So we never knew this little town was so rich in history!
The other day, while we were in the area looking at some land we had half an hour to spare before meeting the real estate agent, so we parked on the main street and had a look around.

Billboards in a park on the Main Street sharing historical information.

Kumara is a town on the West Coast of the South Island. It's located 30kms south of Greymouth on State Highway 73 which leads across Arthurs Pass to Canterbury.
  
The name Kumara is believed to be from the Maori words "Kohe Mara' which means the blossom of tataramoa (bush lawyer).

In 1876 gold was discovered at Kumara. Apparently two years earlier, in 1874 two miners decided to set up an illicit whiskey still opposite the house site of Richard Seddon (New Zealand's longest serving Prime Minister who was once the mayor of Kumara and lived in the township). While clearing the area for the whiskey still these two miners discovered coarse nuggety gold in the gravel. They kept their find a secret until 1876 and then word got out and the gold rush win the area began. During the height of the gold rush, Kumara had close to 50 pubs, a hospital, courthouse, police station and its on newspaper.

One of the pubs built in 1876 was owned by Otto Anderson ( from Scandinavia) and Annie (from Germany). A 30 metre theatre was added to the hotel and traveling shows from England and America came to perform. New Zealand's famous poet 'Thomas Bracken' was a popular guest and Richard Seddon was known to sing there.

Dancing girls were employed to dance with the gold miners. When the miners struck gold a message would be passed down to Annie to get the dancing girls ready as the boys were coming to town!

In 2010 Kerrie and Mark Fitzgibbon purchased the hotel which was in total disrepair and had been vandalised. They spent two years restoring and rebuilding it and it is now open for visitors to enjoy a drink, a meal or an overnight stay. A great place to learn about this little town's history. 

Not far up the road are some old swimming baths. These were built in the 1930s using the rocks from gold sluicing. A local man had watched children in the area enjoying a pool formed by flood waters and got local men to volunteer to build a much better pool. The stones used were 'tailings' left behind from gold mining in the area. The wood was provided by a local mill. The Woman's Institute raised money for some changing rooms for women.It was a real community project which raised the communities spirits and provided a focus. 

The water for the olympic sized pool came from the Dillmanston water supply. It was the largest swimming pool in New Zealand back in the day. 

Unfortunately the pool closed in the 1940s. The huge pipes which provided the water began to rust and the water supply was lost.  Now all that remains is the rock exterior.

Today, Kumara has a population of just over 300 people. Now that the 'West Coast Wilderness Trail' goes through the town, its history can be discovered and shared.

And, so it begins ...

It was an early start on Saturday morning - we left Nelson before sunrise to drive to Kumara. We were keen to see the start of our block being cleared. We'd heard the driveway had been cleared and bush in the centre of the section had started to be cleared.

There were a couple of reasons for the early start. One, it's a 4 hour drive to Kumara from Nelson and when the dogs come, it takes a bit longer as we stop every hour or so to give them a stretch. And secondly, we also planned to head over Arthurs Pass to Kaiapoi to look at a 7m Toyota Coaster for sale.

We stopped at the top of the Spooners Range to let the dogs have a walk around. Although the sun hadn't come up it was just light enough to follow a little bush track. The birdsong was AMAZING!

Further down the road we ran into fog and it stayed with us until just before Greymouth.

Half an hour from Kumara, Bernie got a phone call from he owner of the Toyota Coaster to say the bus had failed its C.O.F that morning (due to two worn ball joints). They managed to find one ball joint in Christchurch but the other had to be couriered down from Aukland, which meant we weren't able to pick it up later that day. That shortened our day of driving by about 5 hours.

We continued onto Kumara and were pleased to see the driveway had already been put in. The drive curves to the right making the area we'll build private from the road.

The rest of the section had started to be cleared. A big mound of bush, moss and mud lay in the centre, which will be trucked away during the week. 

There must have been half a dozen fantails flitting about.

Bill's son Connor put a drone up over the property so we could get a look from above how much bush was around the boundary. There's still heaps left, so we're pulling more out to make the clearing even bigger (one of the covenants of the subdivision is to keep at least 5 metres of bush along the boundary).

The photo below is looking back down the drive towards the road.

After an hour looking around we had a walk along the beach and then headed home. We drove to Lake Brunner from Kumara which was just stunning. I'd recommend taking that detour if you're ever passing. It's about 24kms and most of the road is unsealed but it's in excellent condition and the native trees bordering the sides of the road are breath-taking.
I was looking forward in seeing a camping area at Iveagh Bay (part of Lake Brunner), it's on my list of places to camp and it didn't disappoint. It's a flat, gravel area right beside the lake shore with spectacular views. I imagine it would be a popular place during summer.

Even though it's winter Oakly spent most of the time wading in the water.

Gold at the End of the Rainbow

I think we found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow - or at least our block of gold. And for us, it was a couple of acres of native bush. 

After the rig sold we started to look for some land. 
Bernie loves having a project on the go, and enjoys pottering about creating things. Getting some land seemed to tick a few boxes for us. Bernie could build and we could use it as a base when we got back into motor-homing again.
We talked about areas in the South Island where we'd like to live. One was Otago, we both loved that region - but it's a long way from where we're currently living (and employed) so we limited our range to within an easy days commute from Nelson.
Initially we thought Westport would be the spot. It's Bernie's hometown and compared to Nelson, land is so much cheaper. So we made a list of potential properties and spent a couple of weekends looking around. Eventually we narrowed it down to a couple of possibilities but they seemed to be over priced for the area, so we extended our search.
Hokitika was an area we both liked and while looking on Trademe, we saw a section at Kumara Junction (15 mins north of Hokitika) that had been cleared of bush, ready for building, it had a water tank and a septic tank. It looked good. After making a list of other places to check out in the area we set aside a day to have a look. 
The Kumara Junction section looked okay but there was a small creek to the side of the section that concerned us due to possible flooding. 

After we left the section we went to Kamara Beach to have some lunch.

What a beach! A typical West Coast beach; rugged and isolated. 
There was sand for the dogs to dig (ah-ha, it's all about the dogs), lots of stones, some were pure white (which I love collecting) and all sorts of gnarly driftwood.

Kumara Beach also has it's claim to fame ...it's the starting point for the 'Coast to Coast' endurance race.

Bernie at the starting point...gumboots and all!

We had several more blocks of land to look at around Hokitika so we left the beach to continue the search. However the sections we saw were more like farm paddocks and we were wanting a bit of native bush.

Next we headed north, as we'd tagged a couple of bush blocks to see around Greymouth. As we were passing back through Kumara Junction, Bernie suggested we go back and check out the first section we'd seen (the one with the smaller creek).

Driving into the subdivision, we drove further on to see if there was anything else for sale. We must have timed it right, as there were a couple of ladies out for a walk and Bernie stopped to ask them if they knew of any other blocks for sale. Turns out they'd built in the subdivision two years ago and couldn't speak highly enough of the area. They gave us an address of a couple who would be able to give us more information. 
And to cut a long story short. 
We met the couple. 
They showed us several new blocks available.
We found one we both loved. 
And bought it.

Throughout the subdivision, there are wide roads, which are bordered with native bush. Part of the charm of this area is not being able to see any houses from the road and every driveway is long with a couple of curves to provide privacy from the road.

Below is a photo of the front view of the section we bought.

Look at all that native bush...

And a rainbow ... perhaps a sign!

Bernie, Bill & Amanda chatting about boundaries etc

The photo below is an arial shot. You can see how thick the native bush is - it's a mixture of rimu  kahikatea, punga, fern and a bit of manuka, so we'll clear out an area in the middle to build. 
There are only two covenants attached to the subdivision. One, is no burning coal (only wood), which makes Bernie so happy. Despite being a coal miner he hates the smell of coal!
The second condition is to leave at least 5 metres of bush around the boundary, which makes 10 metres of bush between you and your neighbour (at least). 
Absolutely perfect for us.

A Base

When we're on the road full time our house will be rented out, so we won't have a home base to return to. We've discussed this several times and wondered what we'd do when we felt like spending longer in a spot or staying in a place where we can let the dogs have somewhere to roam more freely.
Buying land in Nelson would be ideal - but out of our budget. We'd end up having to work full time to pay the mortgage and the reason we're choosing a new lifestyle is so we aren't tied to a job.
When looking around, land on the West Coast was the cheapest. After lots of searching on Trademe we found two possibilities.
One: Five acres at Kumara. Most of it is bush and the land backs onto the Wilderness Trial. Plus it's just off the main highway to Arthurs Pass (meaning no gravel roads and the opportunity for other motorhomers to use).
Two: Two acres in Awatuna, Hokitika. This block of land has a bush clad creek and it has full day sun. Again it has access off a tar seal road and would be suitable for others wanting to stay while visiting the area.

On Sunday we traveled to the Coast to check out these two blocks.

Lots of greenery and ferns.

Buller River.

The first block of land in Kumara seemed ideal. It had a solid pad of gravel at the front which we could park the rig on immediately without having to do any work to the land. We waited for Deedee the real estate lady to meet us to show us the boundaries. 

When Deedee arrived she explained to us that the information she had emailed to us had been misleading and that this flat land was the neighbours property. The actual land for sale was beside it. We were disappointed and even more disheartened when we walked over the other piece to discover it was covered in scrub and would need a lot of work and money to make it accessible to park the rig.

We continued on to the next block, which was twenty minutes away in Hokitika. Isn't it amazing how property can be photographed to make it look so different to what it is in real life?

The dreamy bush clad stream turned out to be a potential flood risk, surrounded in the poisonous plant 'tutu'. The land was very boggy and would need to be cleared and covered in gravel to make it usable for us. Another disappointment.

So we drove home feeling disappointed but not beaten! The next day we searched the internet and found another two properties worth a look.

One just out of Hokitika (2 acres of flat farm land) and the other in Frans Josef ( 2 acres of flat land near Lake Mapourika). 

Now we have to find some time to take a trip down there to check them out.

Kumara Update

Just before the New Year, we spent a couple of nights on our block of land at Kumara Junction.

We're thrilled with the 'feel' of the place. It's so peaceful. You get the impression you're cocooned from the hustle and bustle of life. Being surrounded in native bush, bird song and total privacy. Busyness doesn't exist here. It's bliss.

Bill has done an excellent job, clearing an area, for our building site. Bill is Jim Bisset's son 'n' law. And Jim Bisset is the master mind behind the Sanctuary Subdivision. His dream was for New Zealanders to be able to afford a decent size block of land. Unfortunately (and suddenly) Jim passed away late last year. His family are continuing to follow his dream, and will carry on developing the subdivision.

Behind the bus, you can see a green tape - this is the spot that's been dug out for the septic tank.

The clearing is now firm, and has been covered in gravel, and levelled out. And the best bit, there wasn't a weed in sight!
I was surprised how quickly the ferns had grown around the edge of the clearing. It's as though they've seen the light and have burst into life.

There are only two convents when buying here. One, is no coal is allowed to be burnt, and the other - there must be at least 5 metres of bush bordering your section. Which then makes it, 10 metres of bush between you and your neighbour.
Bill has dug large holes (or should I say, he's operated the digger, that's dug large holes) to house the septic tank.

The holes for the septic tank is behind the green tape. I was surprised how deep they were.

Most blocks of land have been sold in the next couple of stages of the development. They're selling like hot-cakes, and it's all down to the power of advertising through social media. The next stages are underway with roads being cleared to provide access to the new blocks.

The road to our section has been finished and eventually will be sealed. I love that there's native bush bordering the roads, plus the fact that you're unable to see into anyone's block of land. Privacy is the paramount here.

Bernie was reluctant to leave. He loved it. And spent hours walking around, or sitting in his deck chair, planning and scheming how and what he's going to build.

The view, looking over the bed. It's such a bonus being able to open the back doors.

Totally in 'planning mode'.

However, as much as we wanted to spend more time, we needed to fill up with water and empty the tanks. Once that was done, we were Westport bound ...