Queen Mary II in Auckland

The Queen Mary II is on its maiden round the world voyage and called in to Auckland for the day. It is so big that they had to dock at the container port - not the best view for the passengers paying tens of thousands of dollars a ticket...





The ship can hold over 3,000 passengers, and even behind the containers it was clearly visible and attracted thousands of people to have a look, causing traffic chaos in the city.





The ship left around 10.30pm after an impressive firework display in the harbour. Again, thousands of people were out to watch her leave and we couldn't get as close as we would have liked. This is a view of her taken from the Takapuna boat ramp.

Whangamata & Whiritoa Beaches

Heading back to Waihi, we stopped off at Whangamata - a really nice small seaside town with yet another fabulous beach. We plan to go back here in the near future and spend more time there.


















A little bit further down the coast is Whiritoa, a very small hamlet with another beautiful beach.

Thames

The next day we drove across to Thames - the commercial town for the Coromandel, but as it was Sunday most of the shops were shut - a typical small town in NZ.






Our first stop off was to a tropical butterfly and orchid garden. There were hundreds of butterflies of various colours.












We then headed to the Gold Mine Experience - an old gold mine now run by enthusiasts hoping to find a rich vein of gold and make their millions. At the moment it is a non profit making enterprise.







The tour included a trip down the mine and through some of the old tunnels - we didn't find any gold. Fortunately we didn't have to go down the mine shaft in the old mine carts and lift...

Waihi Beach

Our destination for camping was Waihi Beach with its 9km long beach.













They had a parachute competition going on where they had to parachute in at high speed to the ground, do a tight turn through flags on the beach then stay off the ground for as far as possible.








At the far end of Waihi Beach is Bowentown Domain and Anzac Bay - a more sheltered family beach.










A climb up the hill within the Domain provided a fantastic view of the ocean and over to Matakana Island.

Martha Mine, Waihi

Our next stop was in Waihi where we went to look at the largest gold mine operation in NZ - they produce 80% of gold and silver in the country. This is one of the dumper trucks that works in the mine.





This is a picture of the mine - it is currently 200m deep.

Karangahake Gorge

This weekend we headed to the Coromandel Peninsula to go camping - our first real holiday since arriving. On the way we stopped off at Karangahake Gorge which used to have a large scale gold mine operation in the late 19th century.





There are many walks in the area but we chose to do the famous "Windows" walk. This takes you along the old train tracks of the mine through the tunnels. The windows are gaps in the rock offering spectacular views down the gorge.



The tunnels were very dark in parts, and we forgot to take our torch, so ended up having to guide 3 pensioners through the tunnel with the aid of the light from our mobile phone!

Waitangi Day - Visit to Matua Valley Winery

As today is Waitangi Day, we had the day off work so headed out west to Kumeu and visited a couple of wineries.







We did some wine tasting at Matua Valley Winery and bought a few bottles of wine.