Ohope, part 6

I generally like to get up early on  the day we are leaving our vacation house and spend a little time on the beach. I generally find some sort of treasure when I do. This time, I found a sand dollar. I have been watching for one of these shells this entire trip, even had the boys on alert with the promise of a reward to both of them if either one spotted an unbroken one.  The other treasure I got from this last morning was a video of a peaceful beach and waves. 
Enjoy. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwhfAH7XUAo&feature=youtu.be

Everyone was up when I returned to the house and busy with the job of repacking for the trip home. It's great to have grandsons who are accomplished travelers. They did a good job of getting their stuff stowed away. 

We took a final look around at the house to make sure we weren't leaving anything behind, and then headed down that steep driveway one last time.

Allie drove us up to a look-out point just outside Ohope.

Then, it was down the other side of the hill into Whatakane and then toward home. 

Before long, we passed drove through Tauranga with it's deep-water harbor and saw this sign. This is where the sulphur mined out on White Island must have been handled. 

This is Waihi again. It's time for lunch and we're stopping at a Subway. 

The downtown area is a friendly place. Take a look at these statues I found while walking from our car to the sandwich shop. 

A miner considering the quality of the ore.

A mner's wife bathing a kid.

Some older kids having a good time. 

We have one more stop to make during the drive home. There was gold found all around this area, and we'll see the evidence of it at another mining location a few miles down the road. In my next, and last, holiday post.     -djf