Walk 18 – Karangahake Gorge, 1st / 2nd September 2019

The Karangahake Gorge is actually two picturesque gorges with two rivers; the Ohinemuri and the Waitawheta rivers.  It’s a historic goldmining area and the land is interspersed with old mine tunnels, artifacts and ruins.

A century ago the bush was cut down and the rivers polluted with arsenic.  Nature has recovered from the mining assault and battery but sadly some of our birds like the kiwi are gone from this area forever.

History

Gold was discovered in the 1860’s.

From the info board: “Local Maori opposition to mining in the Ohinemuri delayed the opening of the field for eight years.  After protracted negotiations and pressure to repay money borrowed from the Crown the field opened in 1875.”

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We’ve been here twice, in the summer of 2006 and spring of 2019.

2006

Walk: Waikato 1 & 2

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Sept 2019 holiday, stayed at the Karangahake Cottage

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Links

History: Ngati Maru

During the 1850s Ngati Maru were one of the main tribes providing large supplies of food to the new capital Auckland. Gold was discovered near Thames in 1852 which quickly changed from a small Maori kainga to a large European town of 40,000 people. Initially opinion was divided among the tribe whether they should allow Europeans access but they decided in favour when a government agent agreed to confine miners to one area, create a Maori police force to enforce this and pay Ngati Maru for every licence sold by the government. When gold was found by the sons of a chief he sent them to Auckland to spread the news and create a rush. Tension was created because under New Zealand law land on which gold was found could be purchased by the state. In some cases land was leased directly from Maori by large mining firms. The early gold diggers found alluvial gold which they could obtain by simple tools but quickly this ran out and was replaced by firms installing stamper batteries crushing gold bearing quartz.

Ngati Maru did not get involved in the 1863-64 land wars conflict.

In pre-gold rush period the Ngati Maru population was estimated at about 310. Afer that, the population increased to 800 and by 1903 census the iwi had 1,350 members.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ng%C4%81ti_Maru_(Hauraki)