This continues a series of caches that highlight quarries, current and past, around the greater Dunedin area. The hides are all straightforward and are small containers so BYOP. Please disregard the number in the log and/or container. This was for a final additional cache which has since been archived. Please re-hide carefully.
This is not a quarry but a river gravel pit. If you look across the river from the cache site you will see stockpiles of gravel that has been extracted from the Taieri River and is awaiting use. River gravel is a useful and cheap source of aggregates and its extraction generally helps with flood prevention. Not far from here there is a gravel extraction operation on the Silverstream at Puddle Alley and the gravel pit at Milners Road. The kart racing track in Milners Road is also built on a spent gravel extraction site. Further south, the Clutha River has traditionally been a rich source of gravel but the dams upstream have slowed the washing of gravel downstream to the point that Fulton Hogan's long-running gravel extraction site near Barnego (just outside Balclutha) is virtually spent. The braided rivers in Canterbury are a significant gravel resource in that region.
This site is operated on "as required" basis so the CO was fortunate that the visit to hide the cache coincided with the loading of several trucks with gravel.
Don't forget the number to help with the calculations for the final cache.
As an aside, there is another disused quarry nearby. As you enter the short drive to the parking area before the track there is an old quarry. In 2012 the Otago Regional Council offered this quarry to the Dunedin City Council at no cost as a way to extend the parking area at Outram Glen and for the establishment of picnic facilities.
Random quarry fact - Did You Know? According to the NZ Aggregate & Quarrying Association, just under eight tonnes of quarry-derived aggregates is consumed in NZ each year for every man, woman and child. This is more than in Australia, the UK and the European Union. Only the USA consumes more per head of population and even then it is only marginally more.