Tunnel on the Driving Creek Railway

We took a miniature railway ride up into the bush to a view point today. Originally started by a famous NZ potter, Barry Brickell to get his clay from the hillside but later extended to take tourists to help pay back a bank loan. Some of the walls were made of bottles, others bricks that he had made. The switchbacks meant we spent some of the time travelling backwards and a couple of the bridges were gone over at two different levels. The whole mountainside was planted with native trees and bush – Monterey pines brought in by early gold diggers will be felled. There was also a safe area for wildlife from the predations of stoat, possums, cats and rats. Then we went down the east coast visiting various beaches and avoiding the rain that threatened further south. This evening we climbed to the volcanic cone above Tairua. The names around here are all Maori and sound so beautiful.