The Ruins of Habitation

Escaping civilization whilst we still could

On the 21st of March, 2020 the nation was in a state of flux. Global pandemic was the whisper on everyones mouth, and there was a pretty good chance that we would be entering total lockdown. In my eyes this called for one final escape before the world fell in on itself. That’s how I found myself cruising towards Alexandra with Stephanie. We stopped in Lawrence to pop into the 4Square to look over the limited supplies they had to stock up for the trip. No chance of finding toilet paper out here in the wild west. Luckily we had planned that far ahead. From there we were just one quick chip stop in Roxburgh away from Symes Rd in Fruitlands, which winds its way up from the State Highway onto the Otago Highcountry.

The gold rush swept through this area in the 1860’s as the gold in Gabriel’s Gully began to run out. The area around Fruitlands where we had just come from was know as Bald Hill Flat and was the subject of a lot of mining. Bald Hill itself, which sits in the middle of the flat, was substantially lowered to what it is today by extensive gold sluicing. The flat was named Fruitlands after the government planted 60,000 fruit trees there after WWI as a rehabilitation program. Most of these trees died due to the harsh frosts the area experiences. Mitchel’s Cottage was built by Andrew Mitchel and his…