Karangahake Gorge

Just leaving Te Aroha to drive about 20 k  to the gorge

Erm....we seem to have a shortage of helmets....

so it was just Tanya and me to ride 6k  up the trails to the old gold mine.
This is the cyanide tank base.

luckily only the base is left.....

there were 15 metre high steel tanks where the baked and crushed ore was put in with a cyanide solution, and compressed air bubbled through it for more efficiency.
At least the cyanide was reclaimed for re-use, but much was still in the tailings, with arsenic and zinc, and these were flushed into the river with the sludge down the tail race.

One for Soub!!

We started out through this tunnel, which is about to be closed as they are building a new bridge to the other end. There is a loop to avoid it, which we returned on.

At first you had to ride or walk through unlighted- even with these it can be difficult to see

here is the gorge- in the Winter this can be full of water. The track continues in concrete so that it isn't washed out in the Winter, halfway up this side.....

you have rock on one side, and a large drop on the other....ok I wimped out!! I couldn't guarantee that I wouldn't wobble and over-compensate.......so I walked and pushed the bike!
There were wooden bridges too, with the track handlebar wide and the sides elbow height....aaaargh!!!!  They also flexed....which is good in an earthquake zone, but didn't do anything for my nerves!

The ride back from there was done on a bike route built on old railway lines, a project organized by the government and partly paid for out of his own pocket by the prime minister, John Keys.    Now there is a good example!!