Bendigo Ghost Town

Bendigo hosts the remains of what was, in the 1870s, the single biggest mining success story in NZ history. Half a million pounds of gold were extracted from the area’s hard-rock quartz reefs—the greatest fortune EVER made in NZ. It’d be hard to tell from the lonely wind-swept remains that the Bendigo boom town, with its nearby Logantown/Welshtown neighbors, was once the talk of New Zealand.

Mandatory for a good visit is the Cromwell local Walk Cromwell brochure available at area i-Sites (Queenstown, Arrowtown, Wanaka, Cromwell). This map has detailed walking routes and scads of historic info. Make sure you find one because without it the trip will be rather lifeless. There is a DOC brochure, but it’s pretty dull—make sure to get Cromwell’s free brochure.

A scattering of visible ruins, remains and remnants are easily seen on a onehour walking tour of the ghost town area. You’ll see the crumbling walls of roofless cabins and even the 5-star Pengelly Hotel. A loop track tours other mining ruins including a stamper battery site and some intriguing deep-deep-deep fenced-over mine shafts. When the loop swings by Shaft #2, its deep dark deep dark deepness will awe you—it’s an astounding 178 meters deep! (For perspective, AJ Hackett’s Kawarau Bungy is 42m and takes about 3 seconds to make the plunge. Here at Shaft #2, the drop is 5+ seconds! Try the math….If a 1lb rock is dropped and takes 5.5 seconds to thud at the bottom, then the equation, Distance = Velocity x Time2 says the distance fallen is ???? (The velocity of a dropped object is roughly 5m/sec², thus Dist = 5 x Time². You try!)

The Bendigo/Logantown/Welshtown ruins are far off the beaten path. Chances are that you’ll see few people, but plenty of ghosts. If you want to see some “real” NZ history instead of some commercialized historical re-enactment like Greymouth’s Shantytown, then make time for about a 90-minute detour on the journey between Wanaka and Queenstown.

WALK: First thing, find the Pengelly Hotel so you can see what 5-star meant in 1870! It’s up the road from the carpark another 100m and off to the left across the gully. Then, begin walking past the signed Welshtown ruins to pick up the marked loop route. Simply waltz past the Matilda sign and you’re on your way (sorry, I just had to write that. How often do you get to waltz past a Matilda?)