Climbing out of the van on a cold frosty morning we were heading to a mining town called Reefton. Wanted to meet a pair of crusty old chaps, self styled as "The Hairy Miners" they were hairy alright, looked like the pair of them hadn't seen a bath for months :)
We found them in their road side shack. If you all got on like best buddies you could make a donation in their box. It wasn't long before I had cracked the proverbial ice and they were singing like birds :) Showed them the knife I made in Barrytown and that was it. Here my new buddy is showing me his collection of rocks and gems
Warming my hands it was bloody freezing
Even managed to get a smile, almost as elusive as the gold in the river. They were great and knew a thing or two about gold mining, guess they just lucked out on the Mother Lode :) Still I dobbed them $20 for their time.
