Sixteen trampers took part in what one participant described as the best trip yet - a walk through the Puketui area of the Coromandel Ranges between Thames and Pauanui with its old gold mines, tunnels and remains of bush tramlines. Also, the Puketui area has a close association with the origin of the Club, being a favourite area of Jon Collins who founded the Club in 1979. The Club’s first official trip was to the Puketui Valley at Queen’s Birthday weekend that year, but the track we walked had not been made. That group however had an interesting time exploring some of the old mines and tracks, and even saw an old kauri dam, which we did not see this time. Two present Club members were on that trip. The Club has made several visits to the area since then, with Jon leading on some of these. We left The Bracken about 8:20am in a van and two cars, and met two more people at the garage on the start of the Pauanui road. Here leader Paul C gave a brief talk about the gold mining history - the area was mined from 1896 to 1914, with some small-scale mining going on till 1923. At its height, Puketui was a bustling township with a shop, post office, hall and several pubs. He then briefed us on our tramp and explained a few safety rules such as keeping the group together at all times and having a tail-end charlie. Our cars were left a couple of km down Puketui Rd from the main carpark, where a local farmer was able to keep an eye on them. We walked to the main carpark and across the bridge to the start of the Water Race Track. This track, which we followed, was once a water race that took water from the Third Branch of the Tairua River to power the Golden Hills Battery. Further on, there had been a slip that took away some of the track, and also blocked the Puketui Road below, and a new track had been made across the slip and up via wooden steps to go through two race tunnels.

From there we climbed up to eventually reach the Collins Drive tunnel. This had been driven through the hill in an unsuccessful attempt to find a quartz reef with ore in commercially viable quantity. The tunnel takes its present name from Jon Collins who, with local tour guide and close friend Doug Johansen, drained out the water flooding the tunnel to allow it to be available for the public to walk through. We split up into two groups to be taken through the tunnel. Paul C had brought nine industrial hard hats, which was why the trip numbers were limited to a maximum of 16 people, or two groups of eight led by Paul one after the other. The first group would go through the tunnel, taking about 20 minutes, and have lunch at the other end; the second group would have lunch first while waiting for Paul to take them through. The tunnel floor had the remains of an old railway, mostly sleepers buried in clay, but with traces of the lines in places. We were able to peep into three side tunnels, two of these being boarded up but with a small peep hole to allow viewing with a torch. But the main attraction was the glow worms scattered through the tunnel - we stopped in several places and turned our torches off to view this unique act of God’s beauty. As we climbed rather steeply on a more rough bush track from the far end of the tunnel, rain began to set in. Once at the top the track followed a ridge before dropping steadily to rejoin the Water Race Track and come out where we went in at the bridge on Puketui Rd. The remains of the Golden Hills Battery were a ten minute walk along what was once a horse tramway bringing material from the mines to the stamper battery to be crushed, and the gold extracted by cyanide. We were able to look across the Tairua River from the remains of the battery to the slip we had crossed earlier on the way to Collins Drive. The rain stopped and the sun began to come out. Our last port of call was what Paul C. called the Surprise Mine on the Gem of the Boom Creek Walk, just five minutes from Puketui Rd. Because of the size of the tunnel he allowed only two to go in at a time to see the “surprise”, and nobody was allowed to tell anyone what they saw till everyone had been in the tunnel. And the “surprise” - the tunnel was believed to be a mini-jail, or prison cell cut into the rock, and on the roof just one foot above one’s head was a whole horde of cave wetas - not for the faint-hearted! The bed in the cell was covered with animal bones. We were back at the cars about 3:30pm, ready to travel to Miranda Hot Pools for a well-deserved soak, followed by fish and chips at the famous Kaiaua eatery. We were back at The Bracken by about 7:30pm. COST: travel $15; hot pools $7