A grey start to the day as we drove 5 minutes from the campsite to Driving Creek Railway & Pottery. This is a remarkable little narrow gauge railway hand built over 50 years by a potter who needed it to transport the clay from the hill behind to his kiln. In 1961 he decided to give up being a science teacher (after 2 terms) and become NZ's first born studio potter. He bought an old cattle farm which had returned to bush and lived in the old cow shed. Having used a trolley to transport his clay by hand built a small engine. Purchasing old rails from closed gold mines he slowly but surely carried on going up his property with viaducts,tunnels and with an assortment of switchbacks the track zigzagged to his perimeter. Most of this he did by hand. At the same time he decided to replant the land with local trees and has actively killed off the invasive trees,mostly planted by Californian gold prospectors who came during NZ's first gold rush in Coromandel. The dead wood came in very useful for his kilns which are all made using clay bricks sourced on site. Many potters have come to work here and their work can be seen along the track.All the engines and rolling stock have been built on site too. It really is an extraordinary railway and great fun. When we got to the top,known as the eyeful tower,it started raining and didn't stop until we got to Auckland for the night. We did stop on the way,as we toured round the Coromandel peninsula at some beauty spots but it was too blustery to venture far from the van. At cathedral cove we could hardly hold the camera due to the wind and it was just too wet to venture out onto hot water beach where you can dig your own geothermal spa bath. In fact we saw 3 girls going to do that very thing but we decided to head on and avoided the traffic through Auckland.