Breaking Wind at the Brakehead
- TJ Smith
- Dec 23, 2018
- 2 min read
Hello crappers! More from my intrepid travels on New Zealand's West Coast!
Our next drop stop was in Historic Denniston!
Denniston History 101*: the Denniston coal mine was opened in October of 1879 and had 88 years of production in extreme conditions. Denniston's infamous Incline is a fall of 510m in just a 1.7km stretch of track and was used to transport the coal from the mine down to the Conns Creek Rail Head and, eventually, the world below. The carts would reach speeds of 80km/hr and the miners were known to ride them as a way to get down to the world below. Many an accident happened in the production and distribution of the estimated 12 million tons of coal that Denniston produced. When the mine shut down in 1967, the town died with it and today all that remains are a few residential homes and the skeleton of a once thriving community.
Recently, the area around the Denniston Brakehead has been made into a site perfect for walking through a facet of New Zealand's rich mining history. Arrows take you on a tour of the site and the foundations of the buildings around you are supplemented with beautiful black and white historic photos on not-quite-opaque boards so that you can take in the landscape while also looking at the picture of how it used to be.
Of course, making the area into a tourist attraction also means putting in some top notch loos!
Sticking with the black and earthy red color scheme meant to invoke the colors of a mine in action, the toilet building looks pretty swanky from the outside. Experience has taught me by now that looks can always be deceiving so I didn't hold my breath on the facilities being much of a win.
Boy, was I surprised.
These toilets were lovely! Clean, accessible, gender neutral and spacious. As with a lot of loos in New Zealand, you have to bring your own soap to wash your hands with but there was running water in the sink. Natural light was used so you don't have to crap in the dark but there were lights should the sun not suffice.
I would definitely recommend the Denniston Brakehead's carpark loos to anyone who finds themselves on the Denniston plateau and in need of a whizz!
Nice one, Denniston, and happy crapping to all of you that go there!
