Main Street St. Bathans (pop. 10) is around 10 km off the main Dunedin - Queenstown Highway The traffic picks a bit when I hit the Dunedin to Queenstown Road near Ranfurly. Up to now the most I’d encountered was the odd minivan pulling a trailer to take cyclists to a trailhead. Now there were fast moving trucks and slow moving campervans competing for limited road space. Beyond it the surreal landscape continues - rocky tors interspersed with dry gulches and fringed by snow covered peaks which look like rows of well -formed teeth. Expansive and seemingly timeless, it induces some kind of time shift wherein mere mortal concerns such as being late for a rental drop off, seem rather irrelevant. The Vulcan Hotel built of mudbrick in 1882, is still operating and said to be haunted Though I am officially still in a hurry, I can’t resist the small detour into St. Bathans. My thanks to Jon, ...
Practising Geographer - nature culture places people