We were supposed to have a walk on the Coromandel Peninsula this morning, but it was raining quite hard when we finished breakfast, so we just relaxed and waited for the rain to clear. Fortunately, it did, and we walked out to the beach to take some pictures before getting into the bus to go off for another walk nearby. The beach setting was absolutely beautiful, with a sheltered blue bay, almost completely enclosed, and a conical peak beside the harbour entrance. There are some very expensive homes there, and no wonder; it is a lovely spot.
The bus took us to the Karangahake Gorge, where we walked through rain forest. The gorge was a deep river valley, surrounded by volcanic peaks, thickly covered with forest.
The start of the walk was by a couple of wooden suspension bridges which were not anchored at the ends, so they moved when you walked on them. As we were 18, with our tour guide, they moved quite a lot. I was not too keen on that!
The walk took us along the river gorge, through avenues of tree ferns. You can see they were tall, probably 100s of years old.
The river was fairly shallow, but fast flowing and full of boulders, so there were rapids.
The area had been important for gold mining in the late 1800s and we passed the remains of abandoned mine buildings.
A railway had been built to serve the gold mines, and 1km. of the walk was through an abandoned railway tunnel. I did not particularly enjoy that bit - I don't think I've ever walked a kilometre so fast!
At the other side of the gorge, the river is calmer and quieter.
We lunched in the small town of Paeroa, famous, apparently, for a soft drink which we did not try.
Then we drove to Matamata which is about mid-way between Hamilton and Rotorua. There, we met our far hosts for the night. We are staying on a dairy farm, where there are 990 cows. Fortunately, we do not have to milk them all!
We went to see the milking parlour, which I have previously only seen before in pictures.
We visited the calves, who were fascinated by us (one kept licking Paul's shirt), the horses and the chickens. We admired the wonderful view from the farmhouse.
And we had long conversations about how farming was a business. Even after years of the Archers (before it left farming topics) I hadn't quite realised care much of a commodity animals farm animals have to be.
Cows in New Zealand spend no time indoors, but on this farm they try to avoid buying cattle feed. I knew about silage, but on this farm they grow turnips as cattle feed; I also hadn't realised you don't need to dig them up. Apparently, the cattle just start at the top and eat down! It's good to learn something new every day.
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