{"id":28985,"date":"2015-05-08T06:30:19","date_gmt":"2015-05-07T18:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=28985"},"modified":"2015-05-04T21:21:32","modified_gmt":"2015-05-04T09:21:32","slug":"inside-the-road-trip-middle-earth-skippers-canyon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2015\/05\/08\/inside-the-road-trip-middle-earth-skippers-canyon\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside The Road Trip — & Middle Earth: Skippers Canyon"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Lookout<\/a>

Lookout near Skippers Canyon entrance<\/p><\/div>\n

This is it, the last instalment of photos from my recent road trip — but what a way to finish, with Skippers Canyon.<\/p>\n

The Skippers Road is reputedly the 7th most dangerous road in the world (how this is measured I do not know!) but regardless of ‘rankings’ it is narrow, with precipitous drops for much of the route and one’s car insurance does not cover you for trips along it.
\n.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The road snakes away…<\/p><\/div>\n

Nor would I be game to drive it if it did, to be honest. So I went with a licensed operator in a 4WD vehicle.
\n.<\/span><\/p>\n

I have been along the road once before, but some years ago and I really wanted to see it again. I was not disappointed. It is the most fabulous country: austere and awe-inspiring and chock-full of history.
\n.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Once<\/a>

Once ‘the richest river in the world’<\/p><\/div>\n

Mostly the history stems from the gold-mining era when the Shotover River was regarded as “the richest river in the world” (for a time) and places like the Oxenbridge Tunnel and Bullendale Reef were making technological history.
\n. <\/span><\/p>\n

But oh my, look at that landscape and tell me if you agree that it must have been incredibly bleak living there in winter. Or maybe just: oh my, look at that landscape…<\/p>\n

\"Skippers<\/a><\/p>\n

By way of a bonus, the stretch of the Shotover river below the current terminus of the road was the Fords of Bruinen from LoTR 1, which I hadn’t realised–I thought it was entirely shot on the Arrow River near Arrowtown. (Apparently part of it was, but this is the main location.)<\/p>\n

\"Ford<\/a>

Ford of Bruinen<\/p><\/div>\n

The locale is just below the Skippers Suspension Bridge:<\/p>\n

\"Who<\/a>

Who dat? (photo: A Robins)<\/p><\/div>\n

For a different perspective on the bridge — you can see why it was once used for bungy jumping:<\/p>\n

\"2015-04-19<\/a>

(photo: A Robins)<\/p><\/div>\n

Beyond the bridge lies the Mt Aurum Station homestead and Skippers’ School, both now part of an historic reserve:<\/p>\n

\"Skippers<\/a>

Skippers School<\/p><\/div>\n

Awesome, huh?<\/p>\n

\""The<\/a>

“The land of the mountain and the flood” — & the gold sluicings…<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is it, the last instalment of photos from my recent road trip — but what a way to finish, with Skippers Canyon. The Skippers Road is reputedly the 7th most dangerous road in the world (how this is measured I do not know!) but regardless of ‘rankings’ it is narrow, with precipitous drops for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-funstuff","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28985"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28985\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29004,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28985\/revisions\/29004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}