The Great NZ Road Trip: Queenstown to Dunedin
Video / NZ Herald
For 32 years the locals in Cromwell have harboured a little-known act of rebellion. It lurks about 10m below the surface of Lake Dunstan.
You might say some of the residents had the last laugh when a large part of the Central Otago town was purposely flooded in 1992.
The long-running and somewhat contentious plan to inundate old-town Cromwell and surrounds - with the loss of the main street and 50 commercial premises as well as 60 houses and 19 orchards - came to pass with the completion of the “Think Big” Clyde Dam and the creation of a new man-made lake, Lake Dunstan.
Cromwell literally rebuilt itself, even replicating part of the old town on the new-look lakeside.
The few underwater adventurers who do make it to the Lowburn Bridge generally know what they’re looking for.
A classic car was spirited on to the bridge in 1992 - apparently just a few hours before the rising lake levels swamped the structure - and there it has remained for 32 years, somehow anchored in place.
Around town and on the odd blog post, there’s been chatter over the years of the “urban myth” of a classic car - some say a Ford Zephyr, some say a Holden HQ - on the Cromwell Bridge.
But a dive video taken around 2010 reveals the truth - it’s a Vauxhall Cresta on the Lowburn Bridge.
One headlight remains in place, a door is ajar, and the interior has been gutted of any seats. The steering wheel is still there.
The Vauxhall Cresta on the Lowburn Bridge, still in place after 32 years. Photo / Descend Scubadiving
So, who did this?
I went looking for answers at the very impressive Cromwell Museum, but there was no mention of how the car came to be there.
Museum board member Jim Walton, a fount of knowledge on Cromwell, had some of the answers when I called him on the phone.
“Before [Lake Dunstan] was flooded, a couple or three locals drove the car on and rowed their way off,” he says.
He couldn’t tell me who did it, but I probed deeper. Do you know why they did it?
“It would have had to have been right before the lake level was due to go over the top and, of course, they had to time it fairly accurately.”
How come the authorities allowed it?
“It was just done on the quiet. It was done as a joke,” says Walton. “There was no official recognition. But then again, officialdom turned a blind eye and said, ‘Right, well it’s there - we’ll just leave it there’.”
Chuckles aside, Walton speaks passionately on the history of Cromwell and the surrounding district, and how it’s changed over the years, from pre-European Māori and then whalers and sealers, before the gold-rush days in the 1860s.
In the 20th century, it became a fruit bowl of New Zealand with its orchards and prime fruit-growing land for the likes of apricots and nectarines. More recently, cherries and grapes have come to the fore - including the grapes that produce world-class pinot noir.
Cromwell, handily placed between Queenstown and Wānaka, is also a visitor destination in its own right and is becoming increasingly attractive for new residents.
“It’s one of the fastest growing towns in New Zealand now,” says Walton, whose connections with the district stretch back four decades and who has been living permanently in the region for the past 23 years, since retiring.
“It’s attracting more newcomers, especially from the North Island.”
He recalls the completion of the dam and the creation of Lake Dunstan 32 years ago.
As a younger man, he had worked on the Snowy Mountains hydro-electricity scheme in Australia, where buildings were left in place as zones were flooded.
“Here they cleared it out and I think they did the right thing. Generally, I think the lake has been seen as an asset. It altered the contours of the land, of course.”
There was a “fair old reaction” to it at the time. “That was understandable. People were losing their homes - some were generational. They were losing their livelihoods.
“But they were compensated and people simply got on with life and created new lives for themselves. You don’t hear too much about it now.”
The Lowburn Bridge is clearly visible in this file photo taken in the mid 1970s. Photo / File
The same area after the Clyde Dam had been built and Lake Dunstan filled. Photo / File
On Sunday, the lake looked idyllic, with a mix of speedboats, freshwater fishermen and women and, just downstream, a rowing crew going through their paces.
And just below the surface, of course, a classic car on a submerged bridge.
Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand’s most experienced senior journalists and media leaders. He has held executive and senior editorial roles at NZME including Managing Editor, NZ Herald Editor and Herald on Sunday Editor.
