The Gold Rush 1861

Gold Rush 1861

In 1861 gold was discovered in Lawrence, Otago. Within 2 months 12,000
people were scrambling into this quiet unpopulated valley looking for
their fortune. They came from Ireland, India, Scotland, Australia, and
China. 2000 people were arriving each month.  One day, the owner of
the property saw 1200 miners coming over the hill. They lived in tents
with winter weather reaching -20 C (-6 F) degrees. They dare not take
off their boots at night because they would not get them back on in the
morning. The miners really did not get that rich as they had to spend
all of their gold in the new town to buy food, permits, and equipment at
extremely high prices. The big rush lasted two years where they dug up
the whole valley for the easy to get at gold, then it was up to the
companies to bring in the big equipment and rock crushers - that lasted
up to 70 years more. Then it cost too much to extract the gold to make
it profitable. Our guides to took us around to see where it all happened
but and explained the process. Dunedin was the city that really
profited. It grew from 5,000 to 150,000 very quickly. It city settled
down to the 120,000 of today.

We lunched at the antique car barn, but later went to the Black's
Brewery. It no longer brews beer and is really just a ruin, but bawdy busty
Dusty entertained us with tales and song of the time. This was the most
popular brewery during their prohibition period. It, of course, never "sold" beer during prohibition, but is sure had lots of tasters.


After a day in the country we had to have some typical New Zealand dinner. Fish and Chips cooked by Ding Won carry-out Fish and Chips. We went to a hosts house and ate far too much of this local fare.