New Zealand Cruise 2026

Waihi Gold Mine

At the Port of Tauranga, Don went on a full-day trip to the Waihi Gold Mine. It reminded him of the gold mines in Colorado he used to visit when growing up in that area, so that was the purpose of this excursion.

The gold mine had a big landslide in 2016, obvious in the photo, which shut down operations. They still do a little work and exploration, but gold and silver mining has ended.

The old mill house which originally processed the gold ore was also moved just a few hundred feet from its original location. The gold in the ore is not flakes or nuggets, but just mixed in with the quartz at an atomic level. To extract the gold, they had to crush it into a very fine powder. We got tours of those buildings, with the large grinding cylinders. Following those tours, we went on a short railroad trip, then caught the tour bus back home.

One of the neat features of the tour, about a one-hour drive from the cruise port, was the chance to see the landscape. Many trees in the pastures had a small fence built around them. According to the guide, they erected those fences when the trees were planted, to keep the cattle from eating the saplings. After 50 years or so, the fences were never removed.

Another interesting landscape was the tall hedges around the farms. They are used as windbreaks, primarily. They were really tall and thin, and appeared everywhere around the countryside. Always nicely trimmed, too.

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