Heading for our next stop in Waihi with Ayden and Liam in the back, we stopped just out of Tokoroa when someone spotted a Subway store, the boys favourite 🙂

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From here we cruised on up to the Waihi Goldfields Railway. A great place to stay and they’ve really tidied it up since we were last here.

Its the perfect stop as we could take the boys on the Train to Waikino and then later meet their Dad Alex at Ngatea where he would take them to Pauanui.

I was a wee bit concerned as it was getting late in the day and you can’t really book parks here but there was plenty of room.

The next morning, we went over to the station and got our tickets and were ready for the ride to Waikino. The boys were quite excited and had a lot of fun encouraging the drivers alongside the railway to toot their horns.

They liked the Taniwha too by the track on the way. After a 20 minute Ice cream stop, we were on our way back to Waihi. If we had more time, we would have taken them over the river to the Victoria Barracks and the Museum .. next time. We did come here a few years ago and biked the trails right to Karangahake. That can be seen here and the Windows walk is well worth doing, see that here.

Click on the Gallery below for a Slideshow

All Aboard

Boys waiting for the train

Crossing the highway

Toots away

When we got back to Rafe, we realised how much progress Alex was making from Auckland so we needed to get cracking ! After a quick look at the big Waihi Mine hole, we set off towards Ngatea.

The Goldfields Railway parking has improved dramatically. They seemed to have levelled it slightly and clearly labelled the parking but generally, it all looks great and for $15 a powered site per vehicle, it can’t be beaten.