Livingstone cemetery
Pos S 44° 47.412'
E 170° 34.225'
Livingstone is a long way from the main coastal road through Oamaru.
Historically it started as a small goldfield on the NE face of the Horse Neck range but it also gained fame because of its geology.
Oamaru is sandstone country, and that area from the coast to the first mountains has sandstone deposits that have been used throughout settlement for the construction of buildings of note.
Where the ground rises from the sandstone ridges is where the gold can be found and like almost all other Otago goldfields claims here were worked by sluicing. Of course this created an environmental disaster but gold ruled! Very quickly the other values of the land were recognised, for the land was well suited for farming sheep, with protected gulches and valleys to give respite from winter gales off the mountains.
In fact it really is a world away from everything and even now residents have a reputation for being clannish and wild, plus a check of past newspapers soon shows some interesting events including the occasional family feud...
It is possible to cross the mountains here as long as you accept the possibility that you might have to wait patiently for sheep to meander up or down the grade, or that caravans and trucks have no chance, especially when the wind brows.
Eventually you look down on the southern side and the road to Naseby and the Maniototo.
