A Tramping Trip

Now that we are back at work and doing ordinary things, there doesn't seem to be much of interest to write about these days, so I thought you might like to know about the last tramp of the year that I did with the Matamata Walking and Tramping Club.

We went to Wairongomai, which is near Te Aroha. It has a history of gold and silver mining back in the late 1800's to the early 1900's. There are a few mine entrances at the side of the tracks. They aren't safe to go into in case of rock fall. They are often filled of water too. Also there are steep inclines, which were used to shift the ore. The railway trucks were loaded up with ore and sent down the rail track on the inclines. The weight of the trucks going down,  pulled up the empty ones. There is work being done to recreate some of the lines. The huge winch at the top of the Butler Incline has been rebuilt.

There are a lot of tracks around the valley. We chose to do the high level walk, with the addition of the May Belle Incline. There is a track going up beside the incline, so we walked beside it rather than on it. Still very steep though.There are signs that the incline is being reinstated with railway sleepers propped up on the side of the incline.

 We passed by a dilapidated hut called Hayes Hut. The roof has fallen in, but you can see the bed made out of wood with wire to hold the mattress. Hayes was an old miner who used to live there.

Wairongomai town was at the bottom of the valley. At it's height. 2000 people lived there. The water wasn't very good and many babies died because of it. People came from Te Aroha to watch the fighting that went on in the street, from the safety of the local pub. Eventually, in the 1920's, the whole town was taken away, as the gold and silver had mostly gone. There is no sign of the town now.

A waterfall on the way

May Belle Incline

A view

A tricky part of the path. It crosses the top of a waterfall.

The site where the Wairongomai town was.

A Little Update

Well there isn't a lot to report these days, as we are just doing the going to work and coming home again.

This weekend we went to Taupo and stayed with Eddie's sister. We had an early Christmas dinner as one of her daughters is going to be away for Christmas.

The vege garden is growing well. The beans and tomato plants have flowers on them. We really could do with some rain just now. It is supposed to rain today, but I have my doubts. There are clouds about, but they don't look very promising for us here in Matamata.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a merry Christmas and a wonderful 2018. Thanks for reading my blog and replying when you could.

A vegetable garden

When we arrived here, Jim had said we could dig up a garden if we wanted too, so last Saturday I got digging. It took about two and a half hours of quite hard work, as the ground was very hard. I took the turf off first and then dug down about a spade depth. I wet it a bit and that helped quite a lot. I have planted silver beet, spring onions, lettuces, beetroot, beans and a tomato. I have put marigolds around the edge, but I will need another punnet of those.

It's not very big, but it will give us some fresh veges over the summer. I think I will get another tomato plant for the right hand corner too.

Washing Machine in situ at last.

The rain has stopped and now people are beginning to say that we need some. We are never satisfied are we.


Eddie built a bench, out of pallets, for the washing machine to sit on. We have bought it a bbq cover for it to keep the rain off of it. Of course the one that fitted best was a webber and the most expensive, but it will keep the washing machine nice and dry.

Now it's a webber

Now it's a washing machine.

When the stock was in the paddock behind us they were very interested in what I was doing, but no one offered to do it for me the next day. They just stood and watched. By the third day it was very boring and they didn't bother at all.
I can do all our washing in it except for one large winter sheet that I couldn't spin as it was too big for the spinner. It had to drip dry. Now that summer is here it won't be a issue for about 6 months.