One of a series of simple, easy to find, caches at railway stations in and around Tasman.
Welcome aboard the Midland Rail service to Gowan Bridge! End of the line! Last stop Kawatiri.
Sir Joseph Ward and his United Party wins the election in December 1928, and one of his campaign promises was to complete the outstanding railway projects. Soon the workforce trebles to 250 workmen and despite the men being shunted sideways to work on road repair after the Murchison earthquake, the track to Gowan Bridge and the yard fitout was completed that same year. Construction of the 111 kilometres to the Gowan took fifty-six years. Construction carried on with formation building towards Murchison however, on 7 January 1931, two years into the Great Depression, the workers returned from Christmas break to be told that they had been immediately laid off and that further construction on the line was suspended. Nearly 300 men were affected, 90 of which had families. A storm of protest decended on the Government, covering all aspects of the closure but mostly centred on the plight of those men, some of whom had large families, and their financial situation. After a plea to the Government seventy-five of the men with families were put to work building a road near Takaka. The Progress League got into action again but although the ministers would hear their pleas, they were told firmly that, given the world is undergoing a major depression, no further funds would be spent on construction of the line. And none were. Gowan Bridge station was opened in May 1929 for freight and closed just 4 years later, in June 1933. As Gowan Bridge was never handed over to New Zealand Railways it was never opened to the public, handling construction freight only.
At the published coords you can see a sign which will lead you to the cache. On the other side of the sign a goods loading platform can be seen hidden in the bracken, marking the last station of the line. About 200m back down the line near the open gravel space is an old railways goods shed that has been converted into a house. It is hidden back in the trees and not visible from this road and anyway, the renovation of the house means the shape of the old goods shed is hardly visible.
Although this is the end of laid rails, formation was built for another 30km towards Murchison, some of which was ready to lay rail but was waiting for the bridge over the nearby Granity Creek that was never built. As you drive to the final, look to your left, you will see a line of power poles placed in the rail right-of-way. To get to the cache, park on the other side of Granity Creek, walk down the path till the rail line crosses it, then follow the rail formation to the cache. There are waypoints to guide you.
Gowan Yards. The published coordinates are off the bottom of the photo.
The cache is at S 41° 42.UVW' E 172° 32.XYZ', where:
if a, b, c and d are the lengths of the four words on the gate at the published coordinates, then
U = d - b
V = 2a - b
W = c - d
X = 4d - 5b
Y = 2b - d
Z = 2b - 2a
∑(U..Z) = 17
Good luck!
References:
Voller, L: "Rails to Nowhere: The History of the Nelson Railway", published by the Nikau Press 1991
O'Donnell, B: "When Nelson had a Railway", published by the Schematics 2005
Scoble, J: "Names and Opening and Closing Dates of Railway Stations", published by the Rail Heritage Trust of New Zealand, 2010.