Journal day 66 - driving Creek Railway, Coromandel.

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Coromandel town.

Went and experienced the Driving Creek Railway.
It was the Vision of one man, the potter Barry Brickell.
Very inspirational story. Barry was the first full time clay potter in New Zealand and purchased some land just outside Coromandel town to set up his studio. He set up the first wood fired clay kiln at his studio. His productivity required that he had a constant supply of clay to work with.After surveying his own land which sloped up into the dense forest he was able to locate clay deposits. He therefore decided to do the pretty unusual thing of building his own miniture train line by himself to allow him to get up to the deposits, dig his own clay and transport it back to his own studio!
He built and built and built and pushed his trainline further back and up into his land to reach further clay deposits.
After 33 years!! of building he now has not only the trainline and a perfect means to source his own clay, but also the main tourist attraction in Coromandel Town. After the local council realised the potential of his train as a tourist attration, he built extra trains to transport visitors as well as a large lookout/cafe building at the top of his land. I found it to be a really interesting and inspirational story of one man's vision ending up being much greater that he had ever envisioned.
I met Barry Brickell himself pottering (pun intended) around the studio area. He's in his 80's I think but looked in good nick after 33 years of laying tracks. Felt a bit star-struck talking to the old guy. His pottery is class too.
Arrived in Whitianga. Went to campsite and went into kitchen area to make dinner. Got talking to really nice English girl Hayley whos also here for the year. Her mum Jane is over visiting her and the 2 of them are traveling around in a campervan for a few weeks.
Got talking to them for a few hours and subsequently forgot to eat dinner!

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