Ross Hotel

 

It's not often we travel so far out of Greymouth but when we first moved here we travelled about 90 minutes south to Ross, which use to be a small gold mining town in the 1800s. Since I like taking photos of old buildings, we stopped so I could get a shot of the old Empire Hotel. 

This photo taken in 1965 shows how it use to look. The original one burned down and this one was rebuilt around the 1900s. There's been quite alot of work done to it over the years, I think it looks way better now.

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A bit out of place?

The last time we visited the small ex-goldmining town of Ross we noticed this scene that someone had planned next to the water. It's a Japanese looking garden which is kind of weird enough because most of the old buildings nearby were old English villas and bungalows so the 2 didn't quite tie together.

Updated: ok so I've just found out more about this garden. Apparently it's been 10 years in the making thanks to many in the local community. It symbolizes the early Chinese miners who came to the West Coast approx 160 years ago to make their fortune here. The memorial garden here has just been finished and was honoured by more than 100 people including iwi, diplomats, and a large group of New Zealand's Chinese community. Article here.

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Ross Goldfields Mural

 

a closeup

These 2 murals are on the side of the Goldfields Information Centre in Ross, just outside of Hokitika. They depict the old mining days in the 1800s when many immigrants came to the West Coast to try their luck in making a fortune.

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Autumn in Ross

I was out in the little town of Ross last week with B while he was working and this is where we ended up taking photos of the historical buildings and scenery.  Ross is about 20 minutes out of Hokitika and was once one of New Zealand's most profitable gold mining towns in the 19th century. This is the old Bank of New South Wales (named after an Australian state) which the miners would've exchanged their gold for money at.

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