Reefton

This is the hangout of the 'Bearded Miners'at Reefton.  They (3 old bearded guys) have an old miner's slab hut with a coal fire inside.  Once your eyes get used to the dark you can see all the stuff they have inside - it's a cross between a museum and an old bloke's shed.  They had made a batch of scones on the griddle which were warm and nice.  We talked about what it was like living in a hut like that and one of the guys said his house is pretty similar :-)  

Later we did a walk in the mountains overlooking the town.  First we walked up to an old water pipeline then up to an old bush tramway.  We met a guy clearing the path and he told us he had cleared the whole track, it had been overgrown since they stopped using the water supply here in 1953.  He had put in some steps around an old slip.  It must be his life's work.

I suppose the guy (we forgot to ask his name) found these things when working on the track.  We were hoping he'd be there when we walked back so we could ask him some more questions but he was gone.

Some of the track was pretty narrow.

There were also quite a lot of waterfalls.