The Mind Creative OCT 2013
Most of the bodies of the Chinese
labourers were exhumed and sent
home. Today, only two graves remain
– the unmarked one belongs to a
miner who starved to death. Twelve
miners buried nearby were killed in a
slip one night in 1863. It was in the
same year when hundreds of local
people died from drowning and
exposure amidst high snowfalls. The
Long Gully sections depict these
dramatic developments by expressive
titles such as Devil’s Elbow, The
Staircase, Hells’ Gate, and Heaven’s
Gate.
Twisting and turning through
mountain country with sheer
drops to the Shotover River
below, this narrow and
unsealed road is closed to
rental cars and the
preferred choice of travel
into Skippers Canyon is with
local 4WD operators. They
also provide specialist “Lord
of the Rings Tours” with the
added advantage that a
number of their drivers took
part in the filming.
The Skippers Canyon Jet
Company offer tourists a
variety of gold claim tours,
river jet-rides, organised
bungy jumping and flying fox
adventures. Bungy jumping
from the original Skippers
Bridge (twelve kilometres
into the drive) was not an
option for me but the flyingfox wire running beside the
bridge 90 metres above the
roaring, thunderous Shotover
River took my interest.
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