Just Tramping About...

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Today while Mark was taking a pummelling on a short-staffed day at work, Sherry and Ro decided to take a little trek about one hour north of Tauranga on the Pacific Coast Highway to the little town of Waikino. In 1897, the Victoria Battery and the Waihi gold mine began operations, the largest of its type in the southern hemisphere. The Battery is where the quartz-locked gold was extracted, and operated twenty-four hours a day, until operations ceased in 1952. From the old Goldfields Railway Station, now the Waikino Visitor Center and Cafe, you can "tramp" a great distance, all the way to the Karangahake Gorge, about two hours one-way. We, however, decided to just tramp to the old Battery and Mining site, and see the Owharoa Falls, constituting an hour round trip walk, more reasonable for the little guy.

Ro getting a head start on the tramp

It began as most walks do, with Ro running the first five or ten minutes, then sandbagging to be held, while I encouraged him on, bribing him with food. He went through two PB&J's on the way, as well as a banana, and some brownies leftover from last night's dinner. And that was just TO the blasted falls.

Ro at the old Battery site

We did run into two rather red-eyed surfer dudes apparently taking a 4:20 (three hours early) on the small stretch of path that follows the main road. They were driving a very wonderfully cool car, and insisted that Ro have his photo taken with it. After hamming around, we continued on to the falls, and were not to be disappointed by their beauty.

Can anyone identify this car? Mark thought it vaguely resembled a Deux Chevaux, but that's not it

The Owharoa Falls were breathtaking, something one might find in Mexico. There was once a small (non-producing) gold mine north of the falls, as well as a township, but in 1896 the nearby town of Waikino overshadowed it, and nothing remains today of the settlement.

Ro lost in existential thought at Owharoa Falls

Once at the falls, Ro set about with great glee exploring, and we ended up meeting a wonderful couple from Nevada, with a huge old black lab (Tahoe) that reminded us a lot of Shadow. Ro kept tossing Tahoe his newly acquired bamboo walking stick, and Tahoe kept gratefully fetching it, easily Ro's favorite part of the day. We even found a short-finned fresh-water eel, native to New Zealand, right in the shallow pool where Ro had been splashing. (EEEEEKK!)

Alas, the day came to its close, and we headed back to Tauranga to meet Mark when he arrived home from work. Sherry is becoming better and better at disguising leftovers in our attempt to clear out the pantry before our move into the new pad. We also finished watching My Fair Lady, which we both love because it puts Ro right to sleep.