March 2023

In the words of 'old mate', the usually reticent high country scribe Claver Esmond, 'Kurow is where the (Waitaki) river strangles enough, as if plying open a portal, with access to another chapter, as the Waitaki story refreshes'. Esmond claims to have traveled this area extensively as a kid and says the simple memories still endure.

When we talk of contrasts, the Waitaki river valley has them in bucket loads. You can attack this routeway, from either end..the Pacific Coast just north of Oamaru, or from Omarama on the inland Queenstown to Christchurch highway.