Have you been to Raincliff Forest? We went for a wee day trip to explore. Quite a few trees down, I wonder if this was from the high winds a month ago? Amazing how they fall like dominos and leave holes in the canopy.
Drive out to Pioneer Park and the forest is another 5mins up the road towards the Fairlie and Geraldine Highway. It's about 40mins from Timaru.
1858 Burke sold his runs which he had named 'South Downs', 50,000 acres and 2000 sheep for 5,500 pounds in January 1858 to William Kirk PURNELL and his brother, Thomas Aurelius Purnell, who named it 'Raincliff Station' after their father's farm near Scarborough, Yorkshire, England.
Burke became the first man to take a bullock wagon through the pass (where a few months earlier James Mackenzie famously rustled sheep from the Levels farm in Timaru). The pass bears his name - Burkes Pass. There is a plaque that reads: "Michael John Burke A graduate of the Dublin University And the First Occupier of Raincliff Stn Entered this Pass known to the Maoris as Te Kopi Opihi In 1855"
In 1881 Raincliff was sold to Henry HOARE, a London banker. Hoare was a great tree lover and carried out the extensive planting around the homestead and he was responsible for the preservation of the native bush in Pioneer Park and for the Raincliff Forest. In six months in 1889 the owner of Raincliff planted 86,176 trees, representing more than 40 species on his properly. This brought the total to 113,482 trees.
The Raincliff Forest contains a wide variety of exotic trees. There is a sign in the car park at the southern end of the forest that gives details on the hike - bike trails. The forest is down Middle Valley Rd, a few km up from Pioneer Park. No toilets here but there are toilets at Pioneer Park. Blakely Pacific have a standard policy for their forests, which is enter at weekends only and after 6pm during the week. Also not to enter during high winds.
