There be Gold in Dem Der Hills

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We're we packed up and off by 9.00, heading West. We stopped in Te Ahora, translates to Mountains of Love, for food and to pack up a box to send home. We have spare stuff that we just don't need eg thermals, hats, bumbag, camera case, travel towels and head rests etc. All in all it was 8 kilos and a pretty large box. The travellers adage is 'pack your bags, then take half of it out and whatever you think you'll spend, you should double it. The adage is holding out so far.
We pulled up at Karangahake Gorge and took off on a 'Windows Walk'. The area has a gold mining past and it was like walking the set of Indiana Jones and Janes Bond. Several large, and wobbly, suspension bridges took us across the rivers to the gorge. We followed iron cart tracks upwards to the mineshaft entrance, then Hat and Ed popped on the headtorches we'd brought with us and guided us through the gold mine tunnels. At various stages there were 'Windows', side tunnels that ran to the gorge wall and gave amazing views to the river below. It's fair to say that the landscape here is just so much bigger that anything we have at home. We continued up the gorge for a while until the path got a little hairy in terms of the drop off. We turned about and headed back to a little sandy beach with a long slow moving stretch of river. Sunning ourselves on the rocks like lizards, we made quick work of our picnic. I went for several swims and Ed and Hat had a waist deep paddle. Another hour was whiled away panning for gold in the margins of the river.

The kids have been reading and testing each other on a Star Wars 'encyclopaedia' which Ed bought in Napier with his holiday money. We reckoned that they are hungry to learn stuff and it just so happened that we drove through the very same town where Ed had bought a Darth Vader book about two weeks ago. We took them both in to chose an 'proper' encyclopaedia. Ed chose one on weather phenomena and Hat chose one about the human body. As soon as we got into the motorhome they had their heads into the books...and then the torrent of factoids started, but we don't mind at all. I also bought five other fact based books and we'll keep these back for several weeks.

We find ourselve back on the west coast in Haihi beach. The site has a real holiday feel to it.

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