Home Care In Glenorchy, ON

I had thought it best I arrive in Glenorchy with an empty stomach, a dry palate and a willingness to try something new. After a 40-minute drive along Lake Wakatipu from Queenstown, darkness may have denied me the panorama of the Humboldt Ranges and Mt Earnslaw, but the views could wait until daybreak.

I was not at Camp Glenorchy for the views. I was attending Pasture & Pinot, a weekend workshop at which a whole lamb (the Pasture part of the equation) would be carved up, cooked in various ways, eaten and enjoyed with wine (pinot, naturally). The workshop was one of a series of courses that run regularly at this luxurious Otago eco-camp - from yoga camps to wellness retreats. But this weekend, meat and wine.

I was already in the company of Hannah Miller Childs, aka The Lady Butcher, who was there to represent the Pasture side of proceedings.

We had arrived at a similar time (Hannah with her brewer husband, Andrew Childs of Behemoth brewing fame) and been rounded up by our host Kath Cahill of Camp Glenorchy and been invited to partake of a beer and some dinner.

And over beer (made by Kath's husband at his nearby Glenorchy Brew Co microbrewery), Hannah talked about The Lady Butcher philosophy of nose-to-tail eating. The approach comes from a respect for the animal, which means every cut and joint is used and very little is wasted - resulting in a more sustainable practice and making for some, at times, adventurous dining.

And it was with this approach that a 25-strong group gathered the next morning, having taken in the impressive local scenery, to watch Hannah disassemble a whole lamb.

Mercifully, the head and insides had already been jettisoned and it was pre-peeled, meaning we wouldn't need shearing clippers. But other than that, it was in its entirety.

But not for long, and while talking us through her procedure, Hannah described which cuts were what, which joints worked best for which style of cooking, and why.

Not that they all needed cooking. The first bite of the Pasture experience was lamb fillet tartare - prepared with shallots, olives, capers, parsley, olive oil, egg yolk and salt. Some of the crowd are apprehensive but the majority agreed it was a stunner, and even went back for seconds.

Before long all were involved in the preparation of the cuts of meat - the loin chops sauteed and devoured for lunch, the legs and shoulders placed in roasting pans and joined by onions, olives, oranges, lemons, oregano and chopped tomatoes where they would spend the afternoon, in the oven, before emerging in time for dinner.

And so with the Pasture under our belts (literally), it was time to see what the Pinot was all about.

Grant Taylor represents the Pinot half of the event. He likens the lifespan of a grapevine to that of a human. In its early years it needs care and nurturing, come the teenage years it's unpredictable and not particularly productive, get a bit older and it will give many years of diligent and fruitful service, and by the time it hits 80, it's vulnerable and ready for retirement.

Grant's winery, Valli Wines, produces a number of varietals in the Cromwell area on the other side of Queenstown from Glenorchy and he had brought a few here to try with The Lady Butcher's charcuterie.

This was where the real pairing of food and wine happened. Three cured meats (prosciutto, pancetta, bresaola) were matched with three Valli pinots.

The wines were made with grapes from different vineyards (Bendigo, Waitaki, Gibbston), each with its own microclimate which impacts how the wine tastes and smells in the glass. Bendigo has a slightly warmer climate that produces thicker skins on the grapes and results in a heavier wine. Waitaki is cooler, meaning a lighter wine with less alcohol. The Gibbston is more fragrant due to the low cropping of the vines.

Though the differences may be subtle, they each have characteristics that marry to the charcuterie - a hint of pepper matches a faint spiciness, a velvet texture enhances gentle sweetness.

The wines and meat are as good a double act as Hannah and Grant, who were entertaining scholars of their crafts. Not one question - whether scientific or gustatory - went unanswered, and was more often than not delivered with a joviality that put everyone at ease.

By dinner time, fellow guests began to feel like old friends and afterwards everyone was beginning to make themselves truly at home in Camp Glenorchy's lounge room, discussing aspects of the day and partaking more of a favourite wine.

A perfect time then for Grant to produce a bottle of Longrow single-malt Scotch whisky, which has been matured in pinot noir barrels sent from Valli Wines to the Scottish Highland distillery before a few bottles of the finished product was dispatched back to Central Otago. It's a fitting end to the day.

• The next workshop at Camp Glenorchy is a women's wellness weekend from November 21-22. Pasture & Pinot will run again Sept 11-12, 2021. Visit campglenorchy.co.nz for more workshops.

For more New Zealand travel ideas and inspiration, go to newzealand.com

Despite the fact that countless film crews have descended on the dreamy little settlement of Glenorchy – most recently those involved in the production of the new BBC 2 series Top of the Lake – this supremely picturesque part of New Zealand retains an almost Garden of Eden like innocence.

Certainly that was my impression on a visit last year when, after a leisurely stroll along the shores of the nearby Lake Wakatipu, I stopped for lunch on the verandah of the Cafe Glenorchy and spotted a story on the front page of the Otago Daily Times.

“Teenage foam party concern”, ran the headline above a critical piece in which local anxieties were brought to the fore.

“Is it appropriate to hold a function where 14- and 15-year-old girls are squirted with foam while wearing white T-shirts?” the writer demanded to know.

Clearly not, was the suggestion.

It seemed an appropriate issue in a tiny, sleepy town in which time seemed to have stood still. Here was a classic example of how New Zealand - and in particular this enchanted part of it - can sometimes feel that it belongs to another epoch. Frequently it is likened to the Britain of the Fifties: a place of old-fashioned values, welcoming courtesies – and a range of products such as Cadbury's chocolate bars that are reassuringly familiar.

This part of the country is also, of course, astonishingly beautiful: hence the interest of so many film crews – most recently that of Jane Campion, director of Top of the Lake, but also even more famously those of Peter Jackson, mastermind of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and now another three films documenting the adventures of the Hobbit.

I was in this part of the world to see just what the attraction was. I based myself in Queenstown, the main town on Lake Wakatipu and a centre for adrenalin-fuelled escapades such as paragliding, skydiving and bungee jumping. While there I was suitably wowed by the peaks of the Remarkables mountain range and the glory of Milford Sound, the spectacular fjord at the confluence of the Tasman Sea and the South Pacific which, with its mix of snow-capped peaks, tree-lined cliffs and seal-bearing rocks, was described by Rudyard Kipling as the eighth wonder of the world.

Not being a bungee-jumping man myself, I took a Tolkien-themed tour by four-wheel drive of the area around Queenstown, which involved scrambling about in the bushes overlooking the valley into which the terrifying, giant-sized “oliphants” marched into battle.

I then headed to the Dart Stables in Glenorchy to take part in a two-hour Middle Earth-themed tour on horseback of the pristine forests surrounding the plain that served as the setting of Isengard.

It was a lovely way of exploring the region, particularly when I discovered that my trusty steed, an ageing brown horse called Elvis, had actually featured in some of the battle scenes of the Lord of the Rings films.

Even more lovely as far as I was concerned was a dip in the wonderful lake itself. It may have been a bit bracing, but swimming in those blue and at times turquoise-tinged waters also felt like a return to Eden.

Top of the Lake starts tonight (Saturday, July 13) on BBC 2 at 9.10pm.

For information on visiting New Zealand, see newzealand.com

Why New Zealand makes the perfect film set The Hobbit: return to Middle Earth New Zealand: a love affair with the land of Hobbits The top 100 films that inspire travel

The best hotels in New Zealand

Lee Rose It's been a groundswell of people who've come together from Glenorchy and the surrounding area who use the pool, who want it saved. We just want our council to have some vision and have some motivation and understand how important a pool is to our community.

Ryk Goddard Lee Rose of the Save Glenorchy War Memorial Pool Group.

Lee Rose And especially to our disabled, to our young people, to the migrant people who we know there's been a drowning on the docks recently. We want adult people to know how to swim because it saves lives. And I've had two long conversations with Dr Shane Gould and it's really important to teach our children how to swim at a young age because we live on an island. Well the council has actually appointed MI Global to run those pop-up events. So there's three events happening next week. And Tuesdays to Thursdays at 11am at Northgate and Wednesday the 28th at Moonah Central and Thursday the 29th at Claremont Plaza. It's really important that everybody get on board and let the council know how we feel about this. I've been on Council Lawn meeting people and talking to people and everybody's got a lovely story about the pool. It's just so beautiful and people are hurting in our community. So my next step is to have a talk to the RSL branches and sub-branches and find stories about how the pool has benefited them. Because it was built by the community and the RSL were the first people to instigate that. There was a Mr McGrath and a Mr Williams who lived in Glenorchy and they wrote a letter to the editor back in 1960. It's a lovely story. And how the community came together and they raised funds for the pool. We had the Derrick family in Montrose. It's a beautiful story. They had a market stall outside their home and Mr Hallam from the local store gave them sweets to sell. The neighbours gave them jars of jam and they had fresh produce from their garden and they raised £50 back in 1960 to build the pool. The story is just so fascinating and it's really historically significant to Glenorchy. So we've been fighting to get the pool historically listed. The State Government knocked it back but we've asked the Council to historically list the pool under their planning process.

Photo: RNZ / Tess Brunton

Residents of Glenorchy face an uncertain future after a study detailed significant natural hazards facing the small Otago settlement.

The study found that an earthquake is likely to result in severe liquefaction, and the town is also vulnerable to flooding.

Glenorchy sits at the head of Lake Wakatipu where the Dart and Rees rivers merge and is surrounded by mountains.

Regional councillor Alexa Forbes said it was a resilient community - but it was facing a lot of risks.

Photo: RNZ / Tess Brunton

The study found an earthquake was likely to cause widespread high to severe liquefaction damage across most of the town.

Liquefaction is the process that causes soil to act more like a liquid than a solid during an earthquake.

Forbes said the community needed to develop its own solutions, with support from experts.

"If houses need to be built differently, if they need to be moved, if we need to find other land, if we need to retreat from some of the natural hazards, those things have to be considered."

The regional council held a community meeting in July to discuss the issues further with the community, hear their thoughts, and answer their questions.

"If we don't implement solutions that are community generated, they're not going to stick. Why would people do things just because we say so? They have to understand the hazards and they have to develop their own solutions with help from people who know about this," Forbes said.

She knew a young family who were grappling with the decision of whether to build in Glenorchy after discovering the risks facing their property, and said they were not alone in questioning their future in the community.

The community needed to be aware of the hazards and be well informed when they made any decisions, Forbes said.

"The separation risk is massive, many times bigger than what we saw in Christchurch, and we'll all remember those big crevasses that we saw in Christchurch."

Photo: RNZ / Tess Brunton

Glenorchy resident Gillian Terry said she bought and built a house three years ago with her eyes wide open to the risks.

"I mean you have to get used to living an hour away from a supermarket. But we have two great general stores here where we can get emergency supplies.

"If we get cut off, we've got a great community. Like in Covid, we ended up with a food wardrobe where people shared food."

She also lived in Glenorchy 20 years ago, and was not concerned by the findings, but understood why some people would be.

"We've got a lot of new people coming into Glenorchy, which if they've come from a city is a huge change, and hearing things like liquefaction … unfortunately the report's put a big cloud over our community, and I think clarity is going to ease their mind."

Debbie Milliken lives on the edge of the flood zone in a house truck.

"Nothing that I wasn't expecting. I pretty well know that where I was is very silty, my garden, and will be prone to liquefaction if there's an earthquake."

Kinloch is a small community 25 minutes drive from Glenorchy on the other side of the river.

Kinloch Wilderness Retreat owner Toni Glover said work had been done to ensure the road to Kinloch was less impacted by flooding.

She was not surprised nor overtly worried about the research, but said it was good to be aware of the risks.

Photo: RNZ / Tess Brunton

She also has a few businesses in Glenorchy.

"Actually when we built The Trading Post, we built up to flood level with marine board within the shop front, so within half an hour - and we have done it - we can empty that shop out right down to the boards.

"All the electrical points are built above flood levels so there's ways of mitigating the risks."

It was a privilege to live in Glenorchy and the surrounding area, but it might come at a cost too, she said.

"Some people find this very fear inducing and are really worrying about the value of their properties and how it will affect their insurance and things in the future, which is a very real thing."

She has been thinking about how to make the town more resilient in the future, particularly with the impacts of climate change being felt more.

"We've been so focused on keeping that Glenorchy Road open, yet we have a lake and the lake doesn't need its roads (rebuilt).

"We need to be more resilient and build more wharves so that we can get boats easily up and down the lake."

There is one road into Glenorchy that winds alongside Lake Wakatipu from Queenstown and it is vulnerable to damage - cutting land access to the town.

Craig Gibson from Emergency Management Otago has been looking at threats to the settlement and how it would cope.

"Understanding that bridges might be washed out. It still means they're isolated, but actually, for example, the airport in Glenorchy is on the other side of the Buckler Burn Bridge.

"If that bridge goes, can we actually get to the airport and is that the best place to evacuate people or to get aid in or to get help in there."

They could find solutions and alternatives as long as they were aware of the risks, he said.

Photo: RNZ / Tess Brunton

Emergency Management Otago is working on a community resilience plan and response guide.

Gibson said plans to improve the community's resilience needed to factor in tourists - and potentially hundreds of people on the nearby Routeburn Track over summer.

He has been preparing for a worst-case scenario - like an Alpine Fault magnitude eight earthquake.

"We've got to work with those tourist entities and DOC, and make sure that actually they know the plan.

"Because if you arrive in to New Zealand today and then start the Routeburn Track tomorrow, and then on Saturday, AF8 [Alpine Fault magnitude 8] happens, you have no idea that that was going to happen. You have no idea what the plan is."

Gibson oversees the Queenstown Lakes District and said the work was aimed to help the community become more resilient.

That was where the abundance of tourism operators in the district could also help as they were well versed in managing, moving and feeding people, he said.

The Otago Regional Council is expected to meet with residents later this year to talk through options for Glenorchy's future.

Tags:

Copyright © 2022, Radio New Zealand

Glenorchy at the head of Lake Whakatipu sits in dramatic surrounds, now new research commissioned by the regional council confirms the location is as potentially risky as it is beautiful.

Evidence from the two Otago Regional Council-commissioned studies shows a moderate to major earthquake or flooding event in Glenorchy could have severe impacts on people, town infrastructure and properties.

It's hoped the new detailed assessments of liquefaction and flooding scenarios will help the community and local authorities develop a phased "adaptation plan" to work towards preparing for and mitigating the hazards.

In a report to be presented at an ORC committee meeting in Cromwell tomorrow, geo-technical consultants Tonkin + Taylor detail that underneath Glenorchy township there is a thick sequence of delta and alluvial sediments, with most sediments highly susceptible to liquefaction.

Liquefaction and lateral spreading occur with strong ground-shaking in earthquakes, as seen in the Christchurch earthquakes more than a decade ago.

Chair of the council’s Data and Information Committee councillor Alexa Forbes says the new information may be a source of concern for some members of the community, and she anticipates people may have plenty of questions in the weeks ahead.

“Our approach is to build and maintain the best information we can and to make sure the community is fully informed."

An online briefing was held for Glenorchy last Thursday night to reveal the new findings.

"Last week’s online community meeting was to present the latest evidence. We will have another meeting – in person – at a later date to ensure the channels are wide open for questions in the days, weeks and months ahead,” Cr Forbes says.

“Our aim is to stand alongside the community and help build resilience. The first step is communicating information. That’s happened, and now we move further into the adaptation cycle.

“We encourage people to ask questions and make contact. We won’t always know the answer straight away, but we will seek those answers out.

"Much of this is new to us too."

ORC general manager of operations Dr Gavin Palmer says the latest investigations contribute to a "significant advance in natural hazards understanding".

They include the most detailed hydraulic modelling study ever taken of the Dart and Rees Rivers, and the first liquefaction hazard assessment for Glenorchy based on comprehensive subsurface geotechnical data, he says.

“The ongoing work of our natural hazards team and consultants in Glenorchy is designed to inform how residents and local government act together to adapt and plan for flooding, liquefaction and other natural hazards, informing future decision-making in the Dart-Rees floodplain and Glenorchy township.”

The ORC, in collaboration with project partners including the Queenstown Lakes District Council, is leading the programme of work to develop a natural hazard adaptation strategy for Glenorchy and surrounds.

Included on the agenda: Civil Defence capabilities, potential flood mitigations, and future town planning – all to be part of a strategy developed in collaboration with the community.

Results of the latest investigations

Previous reports have shown a likelihood of liquefaction occurring in Glenorchy during a large earthquake. Flooding has also affected houses in the township on several occasions, most recently in November 1999 and in February 2020.

However, these hazards and their likely impacts can now be better understood following the latest investigations.

The paper to be presented at the ORC Data and Information Committee tomorrow says the new technical reports build understanding of natural hazard characteristics.

The paper also reinforces the need to adapt to the new challenges and supports the public dissemination of the technical reports.

The liquefaction vulnerability report presents the assessment of liquefaction and lateral spreading impacts for a range of earthquake shaking scenarios – including an Alpine Fault rupture – when widespread "high to severe" liquefaction damage is likely across the majority of the lake-side township.

In the western parts of the town, nearer the lakefront, lateral spreading is also expected to cause major damage and vertical subsidence.

“The hazard posed by the Alpine Fault is extremely high over the next 50 years. So the likelihood of a severe level of liquefaction damage, including severe damage from lateral spreading in the western side of Glenorchy occurring in the next 50 years is very high,” the Tonkin + Taylor report says.

The liquefaction and lateral spreading impacts in Glenorchy may be comparable or worse than the most affected areas of Christchurch during the events of the 2010-2011 earthquake sequence.

For comparison, in Glenorchy there is a greater cumulative thickness of liquefiable sediments, and a much higher drop - 25 metres - into Lake Whakatipu, which is a key factor in lateral spreading susceptibility.

Parts of the township already have a relatively high flooding risk, and the vertical subsidence effects from liquefaction and lateral spreading would also increase the extent of land exposed to potential flooding.

This effect was also observed in Christchurch alongside the Avon River.

Consultants Land River Sea Consulting Ltd (LRS) also assessed the flood hazard for the Dart-Rees floodplain and Glenorchy township using detailed hydraulic modelling for a range of large-magnitude flooding scenarios. Model scenarios also looked at the effects of climate change on river flows, and of changes to the river channel alignment in the lower Rees River.

For the largest modelled flooding scenarios – events with a one percent likelihood of occurrence in any year – hazard assessments based on floodwater depths and velocities shows the worst flooding within the township may be unsafe for vehicles and people, and buildings may be vulnerable to structural damage.

Model results also show large sections of Kinloch Road, and parts of the Glenorchy-Routeburn road at the foot of Mount Alfred, would be inundated during large flood events.

The ORC has a dedicated web page about natural hazards for Glenorchy and the head of Lake Wakatipu - Read report summaries, get answers to questions and find out more here.