Galena from Mt TeAroha скачать в хорошем качестве

Galena from Mt TeAroha

The Tui Mine trip to Te Aroha started out with clear skies but the forecast, true to form predicted rain. Meeting at the Te Aroha Clock Tower for a 0930 departure. As I hadn't been on this trip we were unaware of the terrain that awaited us, not that we would be bush bashing but climbing as it seemed to the stars and beyond. After a while we came to the abandoned mine that was considered the most toxic tailings in NZ. Little was seen of the 10,000 tonnes of concrete spread around the minesite as the remedial work involved the addition of 14,000 tonnes of rock and 20,000 tonnes of clay and topsoil. Now the grassed area is a safe place but for us rockhounds that meant that area was no longer a place to fossick. For the next hour we continued to walk up the unrelenting mountainside to a tailings dump that supposedly had examples of Galena that were there for the picking. One really did need at least a club hammer to break the geology to find if there were indeed some pretties to be found. Soon the hillside was traversed, searching and hammering, breaking rocks with wild abandon in the light misty drizzle that by now had soaked through the raincoats. Yes there was success, we had our fill and after a few hours of rock breaking that filled my pack we braved the long arduous trek down the mountain with considerable more weight in my pack than on the way up. Another fantastic day out doing what we enjoy. I'm just as fast up the mountain as down, probably slower going down as the old pins haven't been challenged to a workout like this in a while. Definitely a big walk for us but I'm sure the enjoyment will be long remembered. #thefinders #galena #rockhounding #rockhoundingnz