Gold mining

In the 1860's the gold rush hit central Otago on the south island of New Zealand. The first gold in New Zealand was found in the north island but it was in central Otago where most of the gold was found.

The gold rush in New Zealand was a continuation of the gold rush that had started in North America and then continued to Victoria in Australia. Once the easy accessible gold had run out the miners started looking for new grounds and moved on to New Zealand.

We visited an old gold field outside Cromwell that has now been turned into a museum. This field still contains gold and with the current gold price and modern machinery it would be profitable to start mining there again. The land is however a nature reserve today and there is no mining allowed.

As part of the visit to the museum we also got to try some gold panning of our own. The gold miner of the day was Erika who managed to find a small gold nugget at the bottom of her pan. Despite her excitement it was still not enough to travel for another year or for that matter pay for our dinner for the evening