Fortunately our farm was in our direction of travel so had a lie in, breakfast at 8.15, rather than 7.15 so real treat for me, together with freshly cooked scrambled eggs! Our first stop was at an old gold mine with 2 swing bridges across the river to reach them.
Only a short stop for us so no mine exploring although a group of teenagers were being herded in, not sure if teachers wouldn't have been happy to lose a few, but fairly stringent health and safety in evidence. We then stopped for lunch at Whangamata (wh is f sound in Maori so some interesting names are around!) anyway town with beautiful nearly empty beach, mainly surfers and their families.
The highlight of the day was a walk through the bush, or forest to us, with a ranger one of a small group run by a man who gained the title of Kiwi Dundee for his work on preserving the wild areas. We walked up to a working gold mine (not let inside this one!) But this is gold ore
saw many more of the silver ferns which have reflective material on the underside of their leaves once they are mature
and learnt about the native trees all coniferous and the kauri a tree which grows very tall and without knots, as the lower branches fall off early on as the tree heads for the light at the top of the forest canopy. It is used extensively for building and canoes. A trip into some caves showed us both the witta
which caused some shudders amongst the arachnophobes mistakenly as they are in fact crickets, but since everyone went in the dark and they were suddenly highlighted by a torch not surprising. I was rather pleased I didn't jump (particularly as ceiling quite low!) and some glow worms which are shown in the middle of the following picture.
Our hotel for the final night of the tour was on a slope with all the rooms amonsgt the trees so
a somewhat disturbed night with possums walking on the roof, rain and birdsong but had had enough wine to minimise their effect!
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