Day 7 – ‘Who’ll Stop the Rain?’

 

Long as I remember rain's been comin' down
Clouds of mystery pourin' confusion on the ground
Good men through the ages tryin' to find the sun
And I wonder, still I wonder who'll stop the rain

1970, lyrics by John Fogarty - Creedence Clearwater Revival

 

Coromandel Peninsula

The rain continues so we took a drive down to the southern areas of the Coromandel to Whangamata and Waihi.

This is the open cut Gold Mine at Waihi. Its HUGE and its right next to the town, there is an enormous truck driving up from the bottom and it looks like a matchbox toy in the above photo. The photo below is taken from about the same spot facing the opposite direction.

This is the pump house which is a Waihi landmark. It has been moved, 300m by the mining company as it was about to fall into the mine. Nice town, all sparkling and clean, its wealth from mine and farms.

Above is Karangahake, which has some fantastic walks but far too wet and muddy to contemplate that today. That green grass is like a oozy, squelchy sponge.

Our last stop for the day was Paeroa, it claims to be the antiques capital of NZ. So we wandered around a bit , but didn’t buy anything.

….and it doesn’t matter where we end up in the world we always seem to need to go to the supermarket. Countdown is the NZ equivalent to Woolies. They have trundles rather than trolleys! They also have New World Supermarkets (Coles???) and lots of small supermarkets ( 4 square) which seem to hold their own against the big boys, unlike at home where they would be priced out of business. Very few fast food places like Maccas. Lots of cafes where you take a tray and self serves from the glass cabinets. Petrol stations with driveway service! (Petrol about $2.05 per litre).