Day trip to St Bathans,
Central Otago

Winter snow St Bathans Vulcan Hotel, Otago

Vulcan Hotel is a survivor continuously operating for over 140 years. There have been some glitches yet the heritage pub is drawing a pint. Complete with a resident ghost in room one. Rose, a former prostitute, was strangled in the hotel. It is not clear if the perpetrator was ever caught. With casual seating outside the main entrance it is a perfect spot for people watching. The pub serves gourmet pies, coffee and ice cream for the kids.

Who needs a museum when the entire town is a living homage to the story of gold fever and the prospecting narratives of many who trudged through the alpine landscape in search of gold. There are several heritage buildings from a post office, church and school. The townscape is an easy stroll from the pub.

St Alban the Martyr Church exterior

St. Alban the Martyr church was built in 1883 during the booming gold rush. The unique building is a pioneer in prefabrication being shipped in parts from England by a prominent land runholder. There is a lack of timber (trees) in the alpine regions, largely tussock grasses hence the use of corrugated iron. “Through its association with nearby Hawkdun Station, station owner and founder of stock and station agency Dalgety and Co., Frederick Dalgety, and manager William Burnett the Church demonstrates the historically important role of the runholder and stock agent to the wider community in such isolated districts in the nineteenth century. The prefabricated structures were an expression of the development of engineering technologies, and St Alban’s is a typical example of what is now an increasingly rare building type.” Source Heritage NZ.

St Bathans church interior

While the original mud-brick Catholic church has undergone substantial modifications the original cemetery is of note for those of Irish descent. The graveyard was set around the mud brick-constructed St Patrick’s Church erected in 1892 and built to replace an earlier church destroyed by a storm in the 1870s. With many of the early gold miners being of Irish descent, some are likely to have been buried in this cemetery. This private cemetery is owned and maintained by the Catholic Diocese of Dunedin. The cemetery continues to be in use today and is administered and maintained by the Blackstone Cemetery Trust. All burials and records are managed by the Blackstone Cemetery Trust. To contact the Diocese email archives@cdd.org.nz

St Bathans Blue Lake, gold mining tailings, Otago

The lake is approximately 70 metres deep and a popular place for swimmers. The lake is a testament to the power of a mining water cannon. A 120m high Kildare Hill was reduced to 70 metre deep lake. There are two easy walks around the lake. The shorter loop walk is 2km and the longer loop is 3 ½ km. The climb to the fantastic views is stunning. The sweep of the lake, the sheer white of the exposed cliffs, the Hawkdun Range backdrop the settlement of St Bathans. The terrain early settlers trudged through is clearly visible.

Pre-European Maori were familiar with the area as it was a passageway to the ponumena mines on the West Coast. At this period the terrain was largely tussock. Due to the fragile nature of the site cyclists are not allowed around the lake, For more information about Blue Lake facilities check DOC, Blue Lake walks: St Bathans area, Otago region.