Waihi is a little town that boasts it has a heart of gold. And it does - literally.
Just behind the main street is the huge opencast mine you see in the picture. It was a hill once, called Martha Hill.
In the late 1800's and early 1900's Waihi was a thriving gold town with many people, including my grandfather, involved in the mining industry. In those days all the mines were underground. When it became uneconomical, (the removal of the gold from the rock was very labour intensive) the mines closed until about 20 years ago when they reopened with the open cast mine.
Waihi also has its streets 'paved with gold'. When the township was established the piles of tailings were used to lay the foundation for the roads. The tailings of quartz rock, with the less efficient methods used in those days, still contained a considerable amount of gold!
My Mother and her siblings were born and raised here. We live about an hour away and pass through Waihi often, usually on our way to Auckland.
3 comments:
What an interesting post! I would LOVE to visit so many different parts of NZ someday. *sigh* One of these days...
I've responded to your story (which is wonderful, by the way) with one of my own. Typical Americans, we have to do everything bigger than our friends on the other side of the earth, even if it's also "worser" :-)
http://veronicawaldsamusingmusings.blogspot.com/
Chrissy - one day I hope we may have the pleasure of welcoming you to NZ.
Veronica - I am just going now to have a look at your post.
I deliberately did not make any comments re the huge scar the mine makes - many words have been uttered on that subject already. However the open cast operation is due to cease and the company are beginning a period of 'closure' where they intend to make the area into a lake.
By 2017(expected date for completion of closure) the site is expected to be fully rehabilitated, safe, stable and self sustaining.
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