Thames and Coromandel town

Thames is the biggest town in the Coromandel peninsula with pop. 10,000. I had this feeling there is absolutely nothing happening here. So I visited this museum explaining how people were living during the gold rush in the 19th century. They were  people working in mines or cutting timber (and basically destroying the giant Kauri trees... like in Avatar)

See rule number 4!

However New Zealand was the very first democratic country with right to vote for all adult european men regardless of whether they owned or rented property (1879), and all adult european women (1893). 
T'choupi didn't care about History and was playing in the exhibits!

 Le me having breakfast in a park in Thames.

Coromandel town has also a gold mining past but is now a quiet tiny town.

Even the backpacker hostel has its own mine with a few glowing worms but I prefered the Jacuzzi... where I met Rob from UK and Erica from Canada.

 Maori art in Coromandel town.