So on our last Thursday in Thames, Gary decided to take Shaina and I out on one last adventure. He wanted to take us to a place called "The Windows". We had no idea what that was, but he said it was a walk that could take anywhere from 20 minutes to 2 hours, so we were intrigued. It was about a half hour drive to the spot, and we wound up at the Karangahake Gorge. This area is a huge gold mining area and I think it wound up being the third biggest battery or something in NZ. I'm not exactly quite sure what I read. Gary said they've made it into a kind of tourist attraction now, so they have plenty of things to take pictures with and things to see. Here's me as a gold miner.
This is where one of the buildings used to be. These factories really flourished back in the day, but once gold wasn't as big of a market as it used to be, they all just shut down and went to ruins. The area in which this battery was is really beautiful. There is a nice river (which you can see in the background) that runs along the side of where the battery was and there is plenty of green grass and trees.
At this point, we still weren't quite sure why this place was called "The Windows". There were two different tracks to walk in this area. There was a bigger one and a smaller one. We were going on the smaller one first, and then we were going to do the larger one. The smaller one is where "The Windows" was, so we just began our walk and took pictures with all the gold mining things lying around.
The walk was pretty simple. There were only a few stairs to get up to where we wanted and then it was pretty much just flat and walking on the train tracks. It was pretty cool because the tracks would randomly be blocked or go into some tunnel. It's interesting to think that at one time they actually used them quite frequently. Now they are just abandoned and fun to walk on.
As we walked on the train tracks, we came to a tunnel dug out way back when for some of the bins to go through. It's crazy thinking how much time it must have taken to carve this out of the hill. The walk was starting to get pretty adventurous and exciting, but we still didn't know why it was called the Windows. Gary knows so much about the gold mining in New Zealand it's crazy. He filled us in on what he knew, and then he made us read the signs that gave little facts and information on the different things we saw on the hike. I'm glad we did read it because it's really interesting seeing how things worked way back then. Basically, it just seems like a lot of hard work and long hours.
We were told we would need torches (flashlights) for this hike, but so far we hadn't come across anything where it was super dark. We had crossed under the tunnel in the picture above, but obviously it was too light to need a flashlight. Then we came across another tunnel, only this time we couldn't see the opening at the other side. We entered into it (it definitely helped that we had Gary with us otherwise Shaina and I would have been really skeptical of it) and eventually the flashlights had to come on. As we continued walking in the tunnel, we came to these little gaps in the tunnel that we then look outside at the river. If you stood on the other side of the river, you saw the hill, and then you would see an opening with a little gate which was where the tunnel opened up for people to look out at. These were the Windows that the name came from (we finally figured it out!) It wasn't crazy dark because of these windows until we continued further into the tunnel. We got to a spot where we could turn left and continue deeper into the tunnel. Because Gary was with us, we decided why not. As we walked deeper into the hill, it got extremely dark. Gary had us turn off our flashlights and we experienced total darkness. You couldn't see a thing. We waved our hands in front of our faces and couldn't see at all. We tried taking a picture, but it didn't work out too well.
We came to a "T" in the tunnel, so Gary let us choose left or right. We were afraid of getting lost, but Gary said if you just keep choosing to go left, eventually you'll find your way out. We didn't want to spend all day there, so he told us to take 100 steps in each direction just to see what was there. We saw tunnels we could continue on in and we also came to some dead ends. Eventually we decided to head out of this section of tunnels and back to the main one. Gary spotted a glow worm string, so we turned off our flashlights and we saw some more! It was really cool. Just like the tunnel we walked through in Franz Josef, it was so cool seeing them unexpectedly that made it so much more exciting. At first it was a little creepy turning off our flashlights, but once we started seeing the glow worms it was so worth it. We didn't see a ton, but it was a lot more than what we had seen in Franz Josef, so that was neat. Eventually we came out on the other side of the tunnel into the sunlight again. The hike made a loop, so we weren't going to back into that tunnel again, however there was more tunnels for us to explore on the other side of the river!
In the picture below, you can just barely see one of the openings that we went out to in the tunnel. This is what you see on the other side of the river looking at the Windows. There was another swing bridge that we had to cross and then you could see where we had just walked. It was cool thinking that we were basically walking inside of the hill, but also terrifying thinking about how much rock is on top of us while we walked through the tunnel and how it doesn't just cave in.
Across the bridge, we got to explore some more tunnels. We were a lot less afraid of the darkness now because we were so amazed by the glow worms. There was a sign for an underground pump that we wanted to find, so we went into any of the tunnels we found. There was basically one main one and then a couple turn offs that led to dead ends. We weren't too nervous about going the wrong way or going somewhere we weren't supposed to go because they had locked gates in some of the tunnels so you couldn't go through. Some of the gates were open, so we knew it was okay to go into them. We found the underground pump and it was really cool!
It wasn't super far into the tunnel and once we found it it was blocked off so I just had to take pictures through the gate.Once again, it was so neat thinking about how people used to work there and at one time that place was filled with people going about their daily lives. There was a huge water pump along with some other tools and carts and such. We wouldn't have been able to see anything without our flashlights. When we turned off our flashlights, though, we could see A TON of glow worms on the ceiling in this room. It wasn't quite as bright and as many as when I actually did the glow worm caves, but it was still so amazing. Definitely one of the coolest parts of the hike. If I would have done this before the glow worm caves, I don't even know if I would have needed to go and pay to see them. There were so many!
We found a gate that we could open and close so we decided to take a picture trapped inside of it. I know we're weird, but it was fun! This is what the gates looked like that either blocked your entrance into one of the tunnels or let you inside them.
After exploring in the tunnels, we headed back to the entrance of the hike. We now understood why Gary told us the walk could either take 20 minutes or 2 hours. We were probably exploring for a little over an hour or so. After this shorter hike, we began the longer one. This was just a bigger loop, but it was just a walk along the river, so there wasn't really anything to be explored. It was really pretty walking along the river and it was a really nice day for a walk. Eventually we came to this tunnel that went into the hill again. This one had lights in it which helped. We didn't think that it was that big, but it took us at least 10 minutes to walk through it. The whole arch was made with five layers of brick. We're not sure how many bricks were used to build it, but it had to have been billions. Talk about long and hard labor. It was built back in the late 1800's, so that's pretty impressive.
Even though there were lights, it was still dark inside the tunnel. It was kind of eerie walking in darkness for so long. We could see the end but for the longest time it just didn't seem like it was getting any closer. Eventually we did find the end, and it was nice to see some light again!
After this loop we headed back to Thames. I was so happy Gary decided to take us to go and do this because I had never even heard about it and wouldn't have done it without him. I am so grateful that he enjoys doing these things and was always happy to take us with him! It was definitely a great way to spend our last couple days with him!
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