Twiddles with the kiddles

Thomy and Jeff both have birthdays in May.

Just like Anne and me.

So, rather than add to their overflowing accumulation of toys, Papa and I took them for a birthday outing somewhere in the middle of the month. We visited the Portland Aquarium and then hit Polar Bear Yogurt on the way home. It was a splendiferous day.

Short aside: I had bought coupons from Sharing Spree, a company that supposedly donates part of each purchase to charity. As I was checking on redemption protocols, I discovered that the owner had not being paying the merchants or the charities, and had declared bankruptcy. Luckily, the aquarium was still honouring coupons. Then I found out that the owners of the aquarium had been in trouble with the law for illegal harvesting of marine animals.

Awesome planning on my part.

In spite of it all, I was impressed with the facility and staff and will return.

And we bought some stingray food and mementos to make up for the free admission.

Feeding the stingrays was thrilling.

Thomy, eye to eye with a large fish.

You know I love jellyfish.

The diver was rather creepy and the boys were leery.

Thomy, tickling a ray.

Enjoying a frozen yogurt.

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On Memorial Day, Bethany and family were out at the Ranch with us. Monday was rainy, so Natalie was the only brave soul to accompany me to the service.

Don't let those big blue eyes fool you; the girl is full of vinegar!

Sunday, however, was sunny and bright, so after church we went down into the canyon and visited the lake. The kids chased ducks and fed them crackers.

The pond (very small lake) is populated by a multitude of yellow-headed blackbirds, which Jeff and I find very fascinating.

We like to sit and watch them flitting around, perching on the tippy-tops of the cat-tails, and feeding their chicks in their nests in the surrounding trees. 

Back at the house, Daniel loves to weed, and there is lots of it to do.

Bethany also blogged about Memorial Day weekend, if you want to see more photos.

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The kids were over for dinner on Mothers' Day, and afterwards we went down the road to some open ground so that everyone (including Wrangler) could run around. 

Madelyn loves a little freedom.

So does Wrangler, and he plumb wore himself out. I walked him home before everyone else so that he could get a drink of water.

This is what Thirsty Wrangler looks like.

And this is Tired Wrangler.

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And, lastly, a look at the wee one, who is gaining weight rapidly and will soon be almost as big as my newborns.

The Hobbit goes into the mountain

Warning: a plethora of river, rock, tree, and tunnel photos await you. And stories about mining. Proceed at your own risk.

I can hear you all thinking, Oh crikey, more mining stories? Must be time to move on.

Don't worry, I will make it as painless as possible.

And then we can get back to the riveting stories of outings with grandies and such.

After leaving Waihi and its lovely, amazing art galleries, we drove some more winding roads through the Karangahake Gorge until we reached the historic walkway through the old gold mines. 

There is a ton of mining history here, but I will spare you the details and just say that at one time, this was a rip-roaring mining camp that used to look like this:

And now it looks like this:

Gold mining took place here from the 1870's to the 1950's. The historic walkway runs along the old railroad track that was closed in 1979. There are several great walks through tunnels, native forest, and along rail tracks.

We walked many of them, as you will see. 

 

The bridges are cool. You can make them sway quite wildly.

Ask me how I know.

The way is littered with concrete structures and the detritus of mining and it is somehow much more thrilling than an everyday walk in the bush.

There are, of course, stairs.

Lots of them.

Walk with me along the beautiful Karangahake Gorge.

Um. Yeah. I meant to focus on the spider. Didn't work out so well.

The Windows Walk is quite spectacular, with its dark tunnels that require a flashlight (or, if you're of the younger and unprepared variety, a very insufficient iPhone) and windows that overlook parts of the gorge.

In the depths of one long tunnel, we ended up in a cavern-like space that was barred off with railings like these above. Beyond the railings was mining equipment. As we stood in the space, I gazed upward and noticed little pinpricks of light. We turned off the lights and the roof glowed brighter and brighter with...glow-worms! We were so thrilled. We stood, craning our necks, marveling at the tiny creatures. They hang from small threads and when we turned on the lights we could see the threads too. 

The best part was that we didn't have to pay the exorbitant entry fee at Waitomo Caves to see them!

We walked and walked and walked and then walked some more, through the Karangahake Rail Tunnel, which is over a kilometre long.

There was a point where the pinpoint of light at the beginning was the same size as the pinpoint of light at the end and it seemed to be a very long way away.

 

But we eventually came out into the light on the other side of the mountain.

And then we had to walk back around.

And my sister and I both had a dreadful need to visit a toilet but there wasn't one.

So we kept walking.

And after a while the urge receded and we were thankful.

And we laughed because it happened to both of us.

John, of course, was above such things.

And then we went home.

Waihi: the town with a heart of gold

A few kilometres south of the Love Shack is a little town called Waihi, population around 6,600. It lies at the  foot of the Coromandel Peninsula and has an average rainfall of 84 inches, which is only about twenty inches less than the wettest place in Oregon. 

We paid a visit to Waihi a few days before my stay ended. The town grew up around the gold-mining industry in the late 1800's. A fact I didn't know: the Coromandel Peninsula was one of the great gold-mining districts of the world. The first prospectors discovered gold in 1878, but their samples were analysed and deemed to be not worthwhile, so they abandoned their claim. The claim was taken over by William Nicholl a year later and was soon prospering. He named his mine Martha, after a family member, and soon the Martha Mine was one of the most important gold and silver mines in the world.

Waihi was a centre of union unrest in the early Twentieth Century. One of the unionists was killed in the miners' strike of 1912 and, according to Wikipedia, this fact still causes some resentment in the town.
By the time the mighty Martha Mine closed in 1952, almost twelve million tonnes of ore had produced 5.6 million ounces of gold and 38.4 million ounces of silver. About 100 miles of tunnels had been driven into Martha Hill by this time. It closed, not because the gold had run out, but because of fixed gold prices, lack of manpower, and increasing costs.

An influx of hippies to the town in the 1970's brought in cottage industries that helped to supplement the economy of the town. It also brought in alternative festivals, which must have made life interesting!

Mining was resumed in the late 1980's, but now as an open pit over the top of the old underground mines. Several houses in the town had to be condemned and roads closed in the late 1990's as a result of damage caused by the collapse of underground tunnels. Many more properties were condemned and bought by the mine when they were identified as risks of collapse. The mining company, which drives 25-30% of the local economy, has instituted rigorous environmental procedures and shown a commitment to helping those harmed by the tunnel collapses. Nevertheless, I would say that investing in property in the town of Waihi is a dodgy business at best.

The mining equipment is humongous!

Quick!
Go get your favourite little boy (or big man) and show him this gigantic dump truck.

To give you an idea of the scale of the pit, those little tiny vehicles on the left of the photo are similar to the dump truck above.

We left Waihi for more mining adventures, but I'll save those for another day.

Warning: you may be subjected to random cute baby pictures for a while.
Here is little Victoria, in her glorious chubbiness.

That is all.