Waihi

Waihi is located in the Hauraki district, and is especially notable for its history as a gold mine town. The town is at the foot of the Coromandel Peninsula, close to the western end of the Bay of Plenty.

The township grew around mining operations since the discovery of gold in 1878 by prospectors John McCombie and Robert Lee. They soon left the area and their claim was taken over by William Nicholl in 1879. He marked out 5 acres, calling his claim 'Martha' after a family member. Several smaller claims were later merged to form the Martha Company.

By 1882 the first battery to break gold-bearing rock was in operation. The Martha Mine eventually grew into one of the world's most important gold and silver mines, after industrial cyanide processes made recovering gold from the low-grade ores easier. Waihi prospered with the mine, by 1908 being the fastest-growing town in the Auckland Province, three times the size of Hamilton.

In November 1905, a branch line railway was opened to Waihi from Paeroa; this eventually evolved into the East Coast Main Trunk Railway, which reached Taneatua in 1928. By the 1960s, traffic volumes for the port of Tauranga had outgrown the capacity of the circuitous line through Waihi and a deviation to the south was built, including the Kaimai Tunnel. It opened in 1978, making the line through Waihi redundant, but the Goldfields Railway was established to save the six kilometres of railway between Waihi and Waikino, which is now a popular tourist attraction. 

Mining stopped in 1952 after a total of 160 km of tunnels had been driven into the quartz of Martha Hill, not because the Martha had run out of gold, but rather because of fixed gold prices, lack of manpower, and increasing costs. However, mining later resumed in the 1980s, with some protests against it during the 1987 consent process. Plans to stop operations in the 2000s were eventually shelved as well, and the mines new owner OceaniaGold is actively investing in extending the further economic life of the mine and the underground operations.