Clear light of the plain

By PETER CALDER

I recommend arriving at Dansey's Pass on a Monday. If you do, chances are that, like us, you'll have the place to yourself. And to doze on the couch as the sun goes down, and the valley is smothered in an early dusk, is to savour a real Central Otago pleasure.

We were there at the end of winter, having left a Dunedin as cold as a Presbyterian's reproach - but the pass has a charm for all seasons. The southerlies may be whipping the coast but you can take the Taieri Gorge road into the Maniototo and a eerie stillness descends. The mountain ranges (with evocative names such as Rock and Pillar, Hawkdun and Raggedy) encircle the Maniototo basin, protecting it from the weather out at sea.

The Maori name of the basin between Ranfurly and Alexandra means "plain of blood" and attests to its gloomy pre-European history. But to tell the truth, Maori words aren't much in evidence. Rather the landscape is littered with place names that link it to other cold countries on the other side of the world: the names of many settlements end in "burn", the Scots word for a stream.

This was the landscape that inspired a young Colin McCahon - "Big hills stood in front of little hills which rose up distantly across the plain from the flat land," he wrote, years later, of the moment he first laid eyes on this "landscape of splendour, order and peace". More recently and more naturalistically, its parched expanses have been minutely documented by Grahame Sydney, who lives near St Bathans, north of Alexandra.

But, as the ad says, being there is everything. The region is famed for its head-ringingly clear days in winter and summer and somehow the sky seems bigger than elsewhere, the horizon endlessly distant.

There was no shortage of things to do. Enterprising types, many of them seeking refuge from big cities to the north, have built up tourist attractions such as gold-panning, horse-trekking and kayaking. Go in the depths of winter and you can try your hand at curling (our August trip was a little too late, although the ice rink at Naseby was still open).

But the basin is full of summer pleasures, too. We walked a few kilometres of the Rail Trail, a 150km track which follows the old Otago Central Branch railway line from Middlemarch to Clyde. The railway was completed at the beginning of the 20th century and the trains stopped running in the 90s.

The Department of Conservation saw a national treasure in the making and the trail, its rails and sleepers removed, is an almost completely flat track now, the surface better than most dirt roads.

But those inclined to activity no more strenuous than stirring a latte or raising a wine glass are well provided for. Pretty little towns such as Naseby and Ophir are period pieces that wear their history lightly and the inhabitants rejoice in their isolation. (The postmistress in St Bathans asked me where I was from and, when I told her, flashed a mile-wide smile and bade me "Welcome to the back of beyond.") But there are good cafes in Middlemarch and Naseby and the Dansey's Pass Coach Inn is a fine traveller's rest.

When we called ahead, they said there was no need to book, which was something of an understatement. The woman behind the bar pointed down the corridor and invited us to choose any one of the dozen rooms. We unpacked and then settled in to the huge lounge, full of comfortable armchairs, and warmed by the blaze in a fireplace fully 2m wide.

A couple of well-heeled skiers who'd been plucked off the mountaintops by helicopter stopped in for a drink before taking off for the city, and the only other person left in the bar was old Des. He is a goldminer of sorts, who supplements his pension with a spot of sluicebox mining. It's "pick-and-shovel stuff", he explained, standing on the hearth and warming his back, a whisky in one hand and a beer in the other and it wasn't exactly a living "but it keeps me out of mischief".

The coach inn, built in 1862, is half an hour short of the 600m-high pass that leads over to the Waitaki basin. The road, which once carried wagon trains to the goldfields, runs next to the long board veranda, although the boss is having a small diversion built at his own expense so he can turn the existing frontage into an outdoor cafe for summer revellers.

He's planning a conference centre, too, the manager told me, and it's hard to imagine that having the 21st century catch up with the 19th won't rob the inn of at least some of its charm, but for now it's a more than memorable place to stay.

They were "between chefs" at the time we stayed and the kitchen and bar were in the charge of an Irish backpacking couple whose cuisine was more enthusiastic than sublime (though the prices were at fine-dining levels; $13 for a ham and cheese panini would be expensive at the Viaduct Harbour).

But the wine list is impressive and the coffee and whisky, served in front of the fire, made for a fine end to a terrific day.

* Peter Calder paid his own way in the Maniototo and will, given half a chance, do it all again.

WHERE TO STAY

Dansey's Pass Coach Innis about two hours' drive from Dunedin but it's worth taking at least a day to get there.

Ph/fax 03 444 9048. Ensuite rooms $140 a night.

Turnstone B&B, Naseby, ph 03 444 9644, email grifford@xtra.co.nz, $70 double.

INFORMATION

The Otago Central Rail Trail