Monday – December 16, 2013
Another lovely ride today. We were ready to leave the campsite at 8:15 a.m. but remembered we had to get the $10.00 deposit back for a key for the fridge – some campsites have strange rules. The campsite office didn’t open until 9:00 am, poor planning on our part. We went to the post office to mail some postcards, yes I am still sending cards via snail mail. Then went back to the camp site to get our $10.00 back. We started the ride at 9:00 am. Again we had some hills, but mostly manageable. I only had to walk up one of them for a short way. Today’s scenery was very reminiscent of the Yorkshire Dales.
When we got to Waihi, we were going to have lunch and then carry on to Te Aroha. However, as we came into the Town, Ralf spotted an old pumphouse and an old mine shaft.
Waihi is known as the Town with the Heart of Gold. We found out why after Ralf went up the hill to the pumphouse and discovered a massive opencast gold mine. It is 250 metres deep – in the centre of Town. Planning permissions?
We decided to stay the night in Waihi and complete the perimeter walk 4kms around the top of the open cast mine. The massive Tonka Trucks looked like little Tonka trucks as they moved up and down the pit roads.
One of the sayings in the early 1900s was that you could get a house for a thumb.
The mining companies would pay compensation if you injured yourself in the mine. Miners would often cut off a digit and claim the compensation, then buy a house with the money.
The Town centre also has a lot of murals and bronze statues. For a mining Town it is very nice.
The first rainstorm of the trip. We had just got back to the camp site after wandering around the Town and picking up some groceries when the heavens opened. The tent is waterproof.
We started to make dinner and chatted to another cyclist from Germany (George). He told us about the Kauraki Rail Trail to Te Aroha via Paerora. He said the trail was good and very scenic and safe – no logging trucks. Our route was going to take us to Tauranga and then across country into Rotorua.
Tomorrow we have changed our route, we are going out to Karangahake Gorge along a 21 kms rail trail to Paerora and finishing in Te Aroha about 44 kms total. It may be slow going as we are on loaded bikes and there is a lot to see. After that we will be heading down towards Matamata (Hobbiton) and onwards to Rotorua and Lake Taupo. We decided not to go down the coast road at this time as the roads are getting busier with campers and logging trucks and often the roads are narrow with little or no shoulders.
The beauty of having no set route and no set timetable. We were able to stop at a really interesting Town with a massive hole in the ground and find out about a different route for tomorrow.