Rainbow Road – Part 2 -Lake Tennyson

This post carries on from Part One (Rainbow Road), there was just too much to see and too many photo opportunities for one post!

After a great morning, traveling the northern end of the rainbow road on our trip from St Arnaud to Hanmer Springs, it was time for lunch at beautiful Lake Tennyson. We had been to Lake Tennyson once before but we just about got blown away as soon as we got out of the truck. This day however the weather was perfect, warm with no wind.

Heading down the hill into the valley towards Lake Tennyson

Lake Tennyson – stunning and what a great day, perfect, no wind, sunny and warm.

This beats any cafe!!

This part of the road follows the Clarence River – towards Fowlers Camp

Fowlers pass track and Fowlers Hut. The hut was built by the Hurunui Rabbit Board in 1890. it was used for maintenance of the rabbit proof fence and for rabbit control. A section of the fence remains by the road. Here there is access to the Fowlers Hut track.

The photos below are of the Old St James Homestead and historic buildings associated with sheep farming days and one of the largest operating cattle/sheep stations in the country, dating back to 1862.St James Station, like many of the early larger Canterbury runs, was an amalgamation of several smaller runs. Now referred to as the St James conservation area and manage by the Department of Conservation. There are three historic buildings – the woolshed, cookhouse and the stable. All these buildings may have been built around 1880. Because of the construction of the woolshed and stables and the integrity of the cookhouse, these buildings have considerable historic value. The St James homestead itself was burnt down in 1947. St James Conservation Area covers 78,000 ha of native beech forests, alpine tussocklands, rivers, lakes and mountains.