This open pit is called the "Martha Mine." Apparently they extract 100,000 ounces of gold and 700,000 ounces of silver from it each year.
So what, a big hole in the ground. I was more impressed on the freekin HUGE digger they had on display!! Check this baby out!!
I am standing with a Caterpillar 777. It was used in the North and South Island in the 80s and 90s for work in coal mines, landfills, and gold mining. It's retired now. It worked a total of 47,500 hours. It's 9.78 meters long, weighs 65 TONS, and has a 1000 horsepower engire. Just to replace one of the tires costs $9000 NZD! I was impressed.
So, onto the Pinnacles! The Pinnacles are actually plugs of rock which solidified inside volcanoes 8 million years ago. The actual volcanoes eroded away and left the plugs behind. There was a 4 hour walk to see them, and a hut about 3 hrs into the trip, so Rod and I decided to make it a overnight tramp.
The actual Pinnacles Walking Track was constructed for packhorses carrying supplies for kauri loggers, gum diggers, and goldminers in the early 1900s.
On the way up, there were a few small stream crossings...
Some swingbridges...
And because we were on volcanic remnant land, LOTS of rock. I can't believe someone (probably those miners/loggers cutting the track!) actually laid all these down so nicely. Must've been a real chore!
There were also portions of rock that were cut out to make steps for the trail.
Another fun chore, I'm sure.
That knobbed peak in the distance is the Pinnacles. The tramper on the trail is Rod. :)
Getting closer!
Here is the hut where we spent the night. MUCH larger and MUCH more crowded than the previous huts I've been in! This one had 80 bunks! Luckily is was only about half full. Thank goodness--- it was crowded enough for me!
We dropped our packs off at the hut and decided to go see the Pinnacles up close. There were LOTS of steps involved in this mission!
In addition to steps, there were ring type things molded into the rocks, like a ladder, so you can climb up to the top even easier (and maybe safer, :) )
Going up?
The view from the top! And if you look close in the forest below, you can see a tan windy path--- this is the path back to the Pinnacles Hut (barely visible in the middle).
It was cold and windy at the top (yes, I was wearing my merino beanie in the middle of the summer!)
We didn't spend a lot of time up there because of the cold and the wind (and we were hungry, too!), but here's a pic of a few of the Pinnacles, what's REALLY inside a old volcano. :)
Down near the hut, there was a side path to this--- the "Dancing Camp Kauri Dam". Kauri is a type of NZ timber. This dam was built in 1924. This area was used for logging, but it was tricky to get the trees down the mountain. So they built dams like this one. Timber would collect in the streams. Water was stored behind the dams, then the dam was released in a flood, and it'd then drive the logs downstream. Would've been cool to see in action, but that would've meant living in the 1920s :)
We took an alternate path down the next morning from the Pinnacles Hut. This one actually had a tramway built into it (I imagine for supply transport). Of course the tram's no longer in use but portions of the (very steep) track are still in place.
A little over a 2 hour walk down and we made it to where we started.
It was much warmer down at sea level so we took advantage of the beautiful weather and spent the afternoon at two beaches in the Coromandel--- Whangamata (pictured below) and also went for a quick (cold!) swim at Onemana Beach.
Great weekend in the Coromandel! Looking forward to returning to that region and exploring more.
Til next time!
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