The Falls Retreat Waihi

... wir erfahren, dass die Goldmine in Waihi insgesamt 130km Tunnel beherbergt und dass man aus mehreren Tonnen Gestein nur 3-6g Gold kriegt. Beide Zahlen erschienen uns irgendwie ziemlich beeindruckend! Ausserdem wurde uns hier erklaert, wie Gold gefoerdert wird - auch das ist total spannend gewesen! Und es wird einem bewusst, dass Gold eigentlich auch nur irgendein Metall ist, was in diesem Gestein vorkommt. Achja, was ...

... street, a miner working, mother washing a baby etc! 
We walked up to the pumping station that use to drain the mines, and had a good look round. There is still some mining going on today but was told out of every ton of rock there is only now 3 grams of gold. Not much else to see in this town but it was a good stop off to stretch the legs! 

... hvor du stopper. Og så er NZ' erne gode til at afmærke og reklamere for de ting, der er at se i lokalområdet. Ligegyldig hvor du er, er der altid et walk-trail du kan følge. Det kan være alt fra 10 minutters gang til et udsigtspunkt til lange trails, der tager dagevis.  Jeg har prøvet at løbe nogle af de afmærkede trails med varierende succes, da der som regel er ret kuperet. Men ...

... the tale to several people it would appear that it was lucky that the possum retreated as when they are frightened they take off to the highest point, which on this occasion could have been Yvonne! We spent our last day at Waihi Beach visiting Anzac Bay, which had been recommended to us by a helpful cleaning lady who had a young family and understood the need for a safe beach. D took his fishing rod and attempted some ...

... and adjacent to the playground! We went down to the beach in the early evening, just a couple of hundred yards from the camp site, and loved the beach. It was a huge flat beach, the tide was out, not too many big waves and sea 'gals' were wandering around. The blue sky, with a few little white clouds, was reflected in the large area that had a skim of water on it - and dammit - Yvonne didn't have the camera on her! It was quite idyllic. The next day we decided ...

... out late I never changed it - thought I would just jump on and let things sort themselves out!!) So with another day in Mt Maunganui, took the bags back upstairs and got organised for the day. Walked to the summit of Mt Maunganui and then took track down to the other side and continued back along the base track. The views from the top were fabulous. Full 360o of the coast line. Went to the beach, the water wasn't too bad. They were setting up for a surf ...

... matting and then heave six tons of beach pebbles onto the beds. Back breaking work but really rewarding, and to look back and see the grateful expression on Jude's face is priceless, we have made one lady very happy, and that's good enough for us. A few miles from Jude's farm one can find the Miranda Hot Springs, these are natural springs which pump gallons of steaming hot water into a large swimming pool and an even hotter sauna pool, we enjoyed a few hours ...

Firth of Thames Thursday 28th August We leave at around 9am an head towards the Corromandel Peninsular. We had heard of a place where we can free camp on the shore near Miranda. Writing an update to the blog sitting in the van on the shore of the Firth of Thames at a world renowned bird watching site. Beautiful views and beach looking forward to the fish and chips. Afraid to open the ...

Hello To All, I have not, contrary to popular belief, fallen off the face of the planet. I am in fact nearing the end of my trip, with a mere 16 days remaining in my journey. Although I will be happy to see everyone at home, and I am in the process of job hunting, etc, I am not feeling entirely ready for this all to be over. This hasn't been just a trip. I've really settled in over here, made a bit of a life for the last four months. So leaving will be hard. And then there is the Jen ...

... Alas the weather turned and its a town a bit like Bournemouth. Lots of retirement homes and not a lot to do. We stayed one night then decided to escape the faulty-towers type motel to come here - Thames, a hippy-ish little town with very comfy sofas! Again the weather isn't brilliant but there's gold in them there hills so I think we'll be heading underground this afternoon in search of treasure!