Karangahake Gorge

Due to a WIFI outage my post on the Waiotemaramo Loop Track experience evaporated into cyberspace, but I have been able to piece together the gist of it from my notes and thus it finds itself out of context on the previous page. Our group would have walked this track on Tuesday, March 17th. We arrived and settled in nicely at the Waihi Beach Holiday Park on the Saturday evening. On Sunday we headed up to the Karangahake Gorge for a very scenic and historic walk alongside the Ohinemuri River. Karangahake is the site of a former gold mining settlement, where the ore containing the gold and silver particles was transported from nearby mines in the towns of Waihi and Paeroa by rail. The  standard 3'6" railway track was built in 1905. We walked beside a section of this track through a one kilometre tunnel lined with concrete and up to 5 layers of bricks and which had been gouged and blasted through a bluff. The tunnel was was an oval arch shape and, for its time, was an engineering masterpiece. We crossed the gorge via a suspension bridge, which was a delight and which gave us wonderful views of the stream below. We continued on to the former Victoria Battery complex, where the ore was crushed and fed into a series of large leaching tanks. A weak solution of cyanide was then added to separate the gold and silver content. The name "Battery" comes from the extremely loud reports by the stamping presses used to crush the ore and which sounded like a volley of cannon fire. We finished by visiting the mining museum and having a fun ride along this historic railway line on a miniature train. An enjoyable end to our day.