New Zealand Gold Fossicking Forums

I was over on the coast last week, no fossicking yet, just showing the 'olds' the beauty
of the place and we went to Denniston. They now have "The Denniston Experience" which is
a trip into the old Banbury mine. An amazing experience! It's an interactive tour, they get you
to do things that make the whole 1800's mining experience very real.
If you are ever up Westport way with 1/2 a day spare it's well worth going.

Looks very interesting.
My grandfather was a miner up there, my mother was born there, and I have a great grandfather buried in one of the mines near there.
It is pretty country on a fine day. I have been through the Mackley 4wd track several times - that runs from the Iron Bridge in the Buller Gorge through to Denniston.

denniston is an interesting place although ive never got gold from up there its ment to be there somewhere
that mine is well worth a visit i helped with some of the engineering on it

the mcwilliams going down to the macley from the west is well worth a dip in with the pan if you go up stream about 200m the creek runs over rock bottom
got to head into the lower macley for 6 weeks for work so will look round and report back

Thanks for the tip that sounds like a good tour.

I went on a tour of a silver mine in Idaho... or maybe Montana, anyway we rode ore cars way down into the mine and this crusty old miner tour guide demonstrated how to drill the holes for the dynamite with this massive drill mounted on a tripod. He explained very matter of factly that it was a good idea to learn to drill both horizontally and vertically. The reason was because after a few years of drilling one way it can get a little boring and it is nice to switch and do the other for a few years.