The junction of two rivers
A Raging River and a Railway
Look across the lake to where the two rivers meet - Kawarau to your left and Mata-Au or Clutha to your right. The Mata-Au is the longest river in the South Island of Aotearoa New Zealand, with the highest volume of any river in the country. It wasn't always the peaceful Te Wairere, Lake Dunstan.
A railway and a lifeline
Directly opposite you was the Cromwell railway station.
In 1907, the Railway and Progress league described settlers' problems getting goods to market: "The road through the gorge is a narrow one...and at the best of times is is dangerous with a considerable amount of horse traffic. An accident at any point of the gorge means sudden death."
The Cromwell railway station finally opened in 1921. In that first year, trains brought in 8,360 passengers, 252,000 feet of timber and 6,553 tons of goods. The also carried 524 cattle, 19,270 sheet and 5,028 tons of good to market. A special 'fruit train' allowed orchardists to get good quality fruit to market, up to 4,000 tons per year.
The Clyde-Cromwell line closed in 1980 as the dam was constructed and the gorge was flooded.
The infamous Cromwell Gap
It is 1853. Explorer Nathaniel Chalmers was the first European to travel up to Mata-Au, with the help of the Ngai Tahu Chief of Tutrau, Reko, and a guide named Kaikōura.
Severely ill with dysentery, Nathaniel became exhausted. His two Maori guides constructed a mōkihi raft from flax flower stalks and floated him down the Mata-Au to get help, fearlessly navigating rapids just upstream of the junction of the rivers.
Nathaniel later described his trip through the Cromwell rapids and down the gorge as a race "My heart was literally in my mouth, but those two men seemed to care nothing for the current."
The NZ Canoeing and Kayaking magazine published a description of the Cromwell Gap rapids in 1989: "Every nerve in my body was alive in response to the demand I was making on myself, as in front of me I saw the piece of water I had for so long imagined myself going through. Down into the tongue, concentrating on going with the boat and the water, leaning downstream and paddling through the standing waves. I had done The Gap."
The Cromwell Gap had become a mecca for jet boats, white water rafting, kayaks and canoes. Swimming was 'only by accident'.