Six years of physical and mental strain has made the Gibbston River Trail, officially opened to the public last Saturday, an inspiring story of Gibbston history, preservation and dedication.
The Otago Daily Times was given a walk-through of the 8.5km trail by Susan Stevens, the Gibbston woman who has spearheaded the trail's development since 2005.
Chairwoman of the Gibbston Community Association, Ms Stevens has battled through seemingly endless stretches of harsh vegetation, and worked tirelessly to secure the project's $1.4 million in fundraising.
The trail, aimed at walkers and mountain bikers, stretches from the Kawarau historic reserve along the south bank of the Kawarau River, to the Waitiri Creek Vineyard.
The Gibbston district has gone from being home to just one vineyard, planted in 1981, to boasting more than 40 with more than 330ha of grapevines, 11 wine-tasting rooms and 18 wine producers.
An extract from a book by Anne Cook, titled The Gibbston Story, explains the earliest settlement:"Although Gibbston has the only flat area of any extent in the Kawarau Gorge, it is so well guarded by the surrounding rocky spurs and gorges that no roads reached it until the end of 1866 ...
By August 1862, the [gold] rushes had reached Cromwell, by October discoveries had been made at the Arrow ... and by the autumn of 1863 a whole flood of diggers were busy in every gully and gulch for 50km around."
As the area was so heavily mined during the 1860s gold rush, the new trail passes through a landscape rich in stories of human and natural heritage.
Ms Stevens says preserving the mining heritage and telling that story is an integral part of the trail's development.
On March 8, a multidisciplinary team walked the trail identifying, among other things, opportunities for interpretative panels.
The team included specialists in ecology, geology, archaeology, mining and river dynamics.
Ms Stevens says the multilayered perspectives that arose provided themes and story-telling strands for interpretation along the trail.
There is still work to do, with a further eight panels planned, as well as a site map to show the location of each of the informative panels.
