Dec 18 - South to Thames

Keep left, keep left, keep left...

Today we went south to the town of Thames, the gateway to the Coromandel peninsula. The weather was like yesterday, gray and rainy (very heavy at times). A week before we arrived in NZ, they had declared a drought. Thank heavens the Dodds brought wet weather to put an end to that. Lee drove and discovered that despite all the yelling and screaming from the passenger seat, driving on the left was indeed a challenge. There was no lack of yelling and screaming from the passenger seat this day, especially when Lee turned into the wrong lane of traffic.

 Thames is a cute little town and a former gold mining boom town. Up to a tonne of gold was processed each month during its heyday. We stopped at the Info Centre in Thames to find out what activities were befitting such a soggy day. We've found the Info Centres in NZ to be prevalent and very helpful. The lady at the Info Center suggested the Bird Hide, the Butterfly and Orchid house, and the Gold Mine Tour.

Di in the bird hide

The bird hide is a blind from which you can observe shore birds. It is accessed via a boardwalk through mangrove thickets. Inside the hide were pictures and descriptions of the various birds. fortunately it was low tide and there were a lot of birds. We spent a good 30-40 minutes watching and identifying them.

Not the Blue Morpho

Next was the Butterfly and Orchid house but we missed a turn and wound up on a black gravel road climbing into dense forest. There were several one lane stream fords (which were dry today despite the rain) and one lane bridges. Lee saw a wild green and blue parrot fly across the road. We finally turned around and found our original destination. The butterfly house contained about 400 butterflies of various colors and sizes. Diane was bedeviled trying to get a photo of a Blue Morpho.

The gold mine tour is run by a trust (non-profit) dedicated to keeping old mining equipment operational. We wandered the grounds (with umbrella) and looked at the descriptions of the mining operations and equipment. Next was the tour of the actual mine shafts followed by a demonstration of crushing and separation of the gold and silver from the ore. Quite fascinating and educational.