We had a beautiful drive along the coast this morning, passing through small coastal towns, and winding through hilly mountain passes.
We arrived in Waihi, the ‘heart of gold’ town famous for it’s huge open pit goldmine, and opted to go for a little look around. The Gold Mining Museum was fascinating, with relics from the late 1800s when mining first began here, and also ‘toys’ from today's mining exploits.
We then started out on the Pit Rim Walkway, a 4 kms walk that would take us around this spectacle. As we neared the pit wall, the view down into the ground was amazing, at 250 metres deep the huge diggers in the bottom were merely a speck.
The lure of gold brought people to Waihi in the late 1870s, after gold bearing quartz was discovered here in 1878. The Martha Mine (picture above) was born in 1879 as a closed pit, with tunnels stretching 600 metres underground, and for several kms in length. It finally closed it’s doors in 1952, and was only reopened in 1987 in it’s current state after the price of gold increased.
Quite a few of the old relics from the closed pit days were still standing, so we had a look around the Cornish Pump House (pictured below), and the dynamite stores.
Also on the walk was a ‘retired’ 777 truck, used to carry the excavated loads…we felt very small next to it!
Once we had finished the walk we jumped in the van and drove out to Waihi Beach, a 9km stretch of golden sand that was the perfect place to eat lunch!
After which we headed across to the small coastal village of Athenree to check in to our campsite, the Athenree Hot Springs and Holiday Park. Luckily for us we got free use of the Hot Springs as we were guests, so needless to say we spent the rest of the afternoon sat in them, relaxing!
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