Thames School of Mines

Having driven past the sign advertising the Thames School of Mines many times recently we finally got curious about what a school of mines actually is. Turns out it was the school where people went to qualify for one of many tickets needed to undertake mining operations in the 1800's. One of those fascinatingly unusual things you find off the beaten track

Part of the collection of hundreds of samples of the many different kinds of rocks that are found in New Zealand. Mining students needed to learn many of these

Of course one of the things they had to learn was what gold actually looks like (its the gold coloured flecks in these rocks)

There are other unusual rocks in the collection. These rocks (gizzard stones) would have been in the gizzard of an extinct moa to help it grind up the plants it ate. Moa apparently selected the hardest rocks before swallowing them.

And who would have thought (let alone had the time) to carve a 30 centimetre tall model of London's Tower Bridge from Kauri Gum (amber)??

The famed wooden rose - deformed roots of trees caused by infestation by a parasitic plant. This plant is now rare, partly because people used to look for it and cut out the root and remove the parasite by boiling. Wood rose (Dactylanthus taylori) is now thought to be extinct in the Coromandel, but it is so inconspicuous that some plants are likely to still be present, particularly where possums are regularly controlled such as at Moehau

Further info on the NZ Historic Places website here