Hahei

16th November 2009 We left Hahei for the last time this morning to once again head for Cormorandal Town. This time we took a more direct route across the mountains. Whilst this was mainly an unsealed road, the route was much quicker and offered different views to what we’d seen yesterday, climbing and snaking as it does through native bushland. We were also able to stop at Waihu Falls, a small waterfall up in the mountains, which was in full flow after heavy rain last night. ...

13th November 2009 This morning we headed for Waihi, about an hour north of Katikati where we stayed last night. This region has been associated with gold mining for over 150 years and there has been a gold mine at Waihi since 1879. In fact, the main street in Waihi has a large open cast gold mine called Martha Mine. We headed for the information centre, and while the rain came down outside we delved into the history of this mine through a really interesting exhibition. The open cast mine which is 250 metres deep closed in 1952 but open-cast mining restarted in 1988 and is still producing gold, although only about 3g per tonne of rock. ...