Tuesday, March 26 - Gold in New Zealand

    If there is gold to be found, people will flock to it and move heaven and earth to find it.  NZ has several old and new gold mining towns.  We visited one still operating, then one where 2000 people once lived but has now been taken over by the forest.

Silver and gold have been pounded out of the quartz from this open mine
in Waihi for several decades.

Those teeny tiny trucks continuously roll up and down the ramps, bringing
fresh rock to the rolling mill at the top.

OK, so they're not so tiny.

This cool castle-like building used to house giant steam water pumps to keep
the underground mines clear before the open pit was dug in the 1950's.

Down the road 15 km in the Karangahake Gorge miners built a huge complex
of buildings that practically filled the canyon.  Mining stopped in the 1930's
and now, nearly all trace of the machiinery and buildings is gone.

Tramway tracks still remain, and in fact have been kept clear so tourists can
check out the ruins.  As is typical for New Zealand, there aren't a bunch of
safety barriers or warnings to protect you from your own stupidity. 

We found this old photo of one of the miners.  He looked amazingly familiar.

We got to tramp through tunnels and mines, using our headlamps.

With very little level land inside the gorge much of the infrastructure
is underground

This huge chamber was dug out to house the water pumps.  It was pitch black
in there.  Fortunately, the flash on our camera was bright enough to make out
some of the detail.

The old tramline carved into the gorge wall, with a little cable bridge
to get to the other side.