Karangahake: Lost gold mines revived in 3D in the Coromandel

At the bottom of where the Kaimai ranges and Coromandel meet, the Karangahake Gorge is a popular day trip for walkers.

From the car park just outside of Paeroa the track leads hikers over a suspension bridge, into the old goldfields. The walks lead along the Ohinimuri river, or Waitawheta up to the 'Windows Walk'.

The trails are well worth a detour on the Route 2 from Tauranga and the bay of plenty.

Light at the end of the tunnel: the 1100metre-long covered railway route. Photo / Flickr, Adriaan C

Walking the 1100-metre long railway tunnel is an easy but surreal walk towards the tunnel opening which never seems to get any closer. More adventurous hikers can follow the Waitawheta to Dicky Flats, where a DOC campsite to make an overnight stop.

Steeped in history and ruins from the gold mines it's hard to get a sense of scale for what was there before.

A century ago it was home to 1300 miners who eked out a living extracting gold from the quartz field. Around 155 tonnes of gold, were dug out of the bed using deadly solutions of cyanide.

This was than crushed and sent to batteries to be toiled over in hellish smelters, at temperatures of over 1062 degrees Celcius.

It was a tough place. Unsurprisingly the mining town dwindled with the gold and the onset of the First World War. Hardly a shack stands today.

There is one place you can get a sense of the place from. Along with the gold rush came another Victorian fad: 3d photography.

Stereographs taken by a two-eyed camera were used by amateur photographers to share an impression of the mines in 3D.

In the photos taken by George A Chappell between 1900 and 1928 you can see the familiar cliffs when they were a hive of activity.

While the miners might be gone, there's still plenty of gold to be found. As recently a 2017 prospectors for the New Tasman Gold Mines found 300,000 ounces – or 8.5 tonnes of the stuff left in the rock face.

However it's unlikely to see a return to mining like in 1900 – as today the gold and the walks which lead over it are all on conservation land.

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