There were gold miners, and before that a few explorers and opportunistic land grabbers, and before that Maori travelled inland each autumn to harvest birds, and very probably floated down the mighty Clutha river back to the the east coast.
The road from Omakau to the Ida Valley in Central Otago passes by this cottage reminiscent of a by-gone era. It’s not hard to photograph it, but it is seldom seen in a hoar frost setting.