There's gold in them there hills!!

Thames is an interesting place.  It was once the largest town in New Zealand as the quartz veins in the area contained gold.  In 1867, the first gold mine started (found by Cornish tin miners) and BOOM!  The town mushroomed to over 20,000  but ten years later the miners had moved on.  Thames now has a population of 17,000 but some of the over 100 hotels built during those golden years are still here (and still hotels) alongside other original buildings.  Still enough history and onto today..

The word for today is 'wither' but not as in "my geraniums withered in the heat' but as in 'the wither today has been sunny and 24°C' which it has.

We set off for a walk in the Kauaeranga Valley - a national park.  This is in the hills just outside Thames and a quick drive brought us to the end of the road as it turned into a gravel track.  Just 3km up was a very smart visitor centre and a ranger advised us to walk the Cookson and Wainora Kauri track.  This was a lovely walk, first alongside the river and then it struck off up the spur.  As this was a walking track it was well maintained with bridges over the streams and a gravel track.  It wound its way through 'the bush' which  in truth it looked more like tropical forest with liana-type vines, epiphytes and trees covered in moss.  There are ferns, not just as undergrowth but as giant tree ferns as well (plus all sizes in between).  Going up was a bit of a monster as it was steep but the rangers have put in steps, and more steps, and more steps, and even more steps!  If you had the breath as you climbed you could have sung 'stairway to heaven' many, many times.  That said, the forest and the views were excellent.  First stop was the giant Cookson Kauri tree which gave us photo opportunities​ and a breather.  All Kauri trees are protected as they were nearly all logged for ships' timber, mining or agricultural clearance.  At the beginning of the walk was disinfectant for your boots as the trees are now under threat from a die-back disease.  The track then turned into a tramping trail and it was marked by little orange arrows but not maintained.  This was even more fun and picture-worthy (see todays image of OF1 in forest glade mode) as we skipped over the tree roots.  We reached the Wainora Kauri trees and admired their straight, thick, trunks (ideal for masts, spars, pit props, etc.) which do not have branches until about 2/3 up.

We had our picnic at the top of the descent over looking Table Mountain - yes NZ has one as well.

With a quick tea stop back at the Tuscany we were off again but only to the other side of town for a visit to a gold mine.  This was a project that was started and run by volunteers who are developing an old gold mine (the hill behind the town is, apparently, like a Swiss cheese) and stamping battery.  Our guide (for only three, us two and a mad Lithuanian woman who took more photos than you have had hot dinners) was originally from Chichester but had spent many years in NZ so spoke more like a native.  We first donned hard hats and set off through some of the myriad of tunnels - amazing that they were all hand dug by desperate men trying to find their own pot of gold.  Lumps of quartz were extracted and sent to the stamping battery where steam driven giant iron hammers stamped the chunks into smaller bits until they were sand sized.  The gold (and silver plus copper) was then washed out through mercury (later this was substituted by cyanide,!!??).  Thus the life span of a miner was very short - blind from working underground, deaf through the giant stampers, and mad from the mercury.  Not to mention dead from silicosis or heavy metal and cyanide poisoning.  You can tell that our guide was excellent.

Back to the ranch where I had a swim whilst OF2 read by the pool. We then made ourselves beautiful for a night out on the town ...  well we went to "Gastronomic", a restaurant recommended by our hosts.  It was excellent.  I had mussel chowder followed by gurnard and OF1 started with shrimp cocktail and a main of pork.  All washed down with a Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc.  Great meal as every bit of it was delicious.

Returned to base to find that I had only scored 17 points in the FFL - it's all going south......

Tomorrow we travel to Whakatane further along the north east coast.  We hope for a trip out to sea to visit an active volcano on Friday.  Next update after my hot date with White Island