Wed 14th – Dickie Flat to Whangaiterenga, Coramandel Peninsula

We were all packed up and ready to leave Dickie Flat when I noticed that there were some not-too-knee-crippling walks to the old gold-mining area detailed on the information board. We walked around the hills and down the Waitawheta River to Mount Karangahake. They started drilling and blasting for gold there in the 1890’s. Before too long the mountains was full of 12,000m of intersecting tunnels. There were so many that I have no idea how the mountain stayed standing.

Some of the tunnels were open to tourists and explored as far as we could. It wasn't possible to go very far into the mountainside before you hit an iron grill that blocked the gate but I’m not sure if I’d have wanted to. I found the old trucks and bits of machinery that we could make out just beyond the public access really creepy. It must have been brimming with life and incredibly noisy when it was functioning and now it was just eerily quiet.

Further mining also took place on the opposite side of the river, where miners created ‘windows’ in the cliff face so they could dump the rock out. We crossed the old tramway bridge to go and have a look around, but even with our head-torches, it was hard to see and treacherous underfoot.

The ceilings of the tunnels glowed with a ethereal, silver phosphorescence and I couldn't help reaching up to touch it. It was much slimier than I would have liked!

When Matt told me to turn my light off and look up, I wasn't sure what I was going to find. I was really excited when I saw the bright pin-pricks of glow-worms. I made my way as far as I could with my light turned off – until I got a slimy, stingy drip in my wide-open eye that Matt kept telling me was glow-worm wee. I was hoping that it would lead to phosphorescence based super-powers but no signs yet.  

I decided that enough was enough with my stupid old-lady knees and that I would finally go to the doctors – no matter how expensive. We drove to Thames town but by the time we arrived, the surgery was closed.

Instead we continued to Coromandel forest park to stay at one of the many DOC camp-grounds there. The first one we reached had a few vans in a square field so we continued further down the road in the hope of finding somewhere more National Forest-like. The next one not only had great name, Whanaiterenga , it had flushing toilets, lots of little camping areas, each with individual fire-pits, and was totally deserted apart from lots bunnies and birds and trees. We didn’t get to sit out and enjoy the facilities because, as usual, it was raining, but it was still nice to feel as though we were truly in nature’s domain.