Not Everthing that is Gold Glistens!

It is time to move on again today; we are leaving Tairua and going to Tauranga, just under 80 miles further south. One of the things we had wanted to do whilst we were in Tairua was walk up Paku Hill from where we had been told there was a great view of the coast. We had another great, if slightly novel breakfast at our bed and breakfast and it was nice to be able to chat to our hosts for a while and to find out a little more about their lives. They told us how they used to live in Taupo where Colin was a farmer and engineer. They sold up and came to the Coromandel for their retirement, and Colin then built their lovely home with a view to running the B & B business. They are now only open for about 5 months during the summer. We were grateful that we got to stay there after our previously booked accommodation passed us on, having decided they wanted to go away themselves. Once we had settled up and checked out we drove the short distance to the hill.

To make the climb easier we were able to drive about half way up to where there is a car park. The climb is quite steep in places, mostly with inclines and steps but near the top there was a few feet over rocks. We could tell the view was going to be great as we climbed up but it exceeded all our expectations once we got to the very top. It was still a little bit hazy but we had a stunning view of the harbour.

A man offered to take our picture and I got talking to a lovely New Zealand woman who was there with her husband and children. It became a apparent that this was a place people returned to time and again if they had the opportunity. Once we had taken all the photographs we could find a reason to take, we started the climb back down the hill, with some children scampering down behind us. It really struck me that there is must be a time when one makes the transition from not worrying about falling over to it being a major preoccupation; is this a gradual process or does it happen at a certain age of maturity, I am not quite sure?

Once back at the car, we set our destination on the sat-nav and got on our way. It was lovely to see that a lot of the deciduous trees were coming into leaf; a real sign that Spring is here.

Colin had also suggested that we stop and take a look at an open cast gold mine at a place called Waihi which was about half way to Tauranga. I had done a bit of research and found out that there was also a new museum dedicated to the mine and the men who worked there. We were able to find the museum quite easily as it was overlooked by a pump house based on the traditional ones found in Cornwall, although this one lacked the romance of English predecessors having been built out of concrete rather than Cornish stone.

As the museum was celebrating its first year of opening we were able to get in at half price. It was very interactive and good fun. We were able to get involved in a mock drilling and blasting. There was also a great Lego model of a mine that made me think of my son Adam.

I was staggered to find out that they mine 100,000 ounces of gold and 700,000 ounces of silver a year with a value of 3 million New Zealand dollars a week or over $150 million a year. I worked out that the gold is the equivalent to the weight of 1 small adult a week. Perhaps not surprisingly they won't tell you how they get it out of the town although I did find out that it goes out as a powder and is smelted in Perth, Australia. My theory is a small underground train, but Nigel just keeps laughing at my proposal. Interesting to ponder on!

After we had finished looking around the museum we then went to look at the mine which is massive

They had a slip on the north wall earlier this year and it looks as though they have suspended mining for the time being whilst further investigations are taking place. Slightly strangely it would appear that the mine was bought a couple of months after the collapse, particularly given it only has a few more years licence left to mine. There was also a great view of the town from the pit rim.

It had been a really interesting stop, one we were really glad we had made. The rest of the journey was uneventful and not particularly exciting. We were a little disappointed when we arrived at our Tauranga bed and breakfast, as despite its name Seascape it had no sea view. I also came to the conclusion that I dislike the lack of privacy and the sense of intrusion you get from staying in someone else home. The place had great reviews but didn't really do it for us. We promptly changed a couple of our future bookings going instead for hotels/ apartments. In the meantime we tried to make the most of where we were, and a bonus was that we had a lovely meal in a nearby restaurant that evening.