Driving Creek Railway is also in Coromandel and another must see for this train loving family. The narrow gauge mountain railway goes up to fantastic views. Along the way there is a lot of terracotta art to see as well as the beginnings of a new Kauri forest. The land has been protected in perpetuity by a covenant on the land title. The railway itself was built to carry materials up the mountain for this is a real working pottery. In fact, all the bricks you see along the way are made on site. Now it's a major tourist attraction, but still homey and old-fashioned.
There are several switchbacks where you can see the other train that was going at the time.
Here's one of the tunnels made from their bricks. Love that shape! There were pottery and brick decorations all along the way, but very hard to take a photo of. Below, you can see one of the bottle walls. I didn't notice until I made this post that there is a word there (in the light colored bottles).
At the top we stopped and got out at the Eyeful Tower. It has lovely views of the countryside and the bay.
We came home with a few tiny pottery pieces. Mine is a sweet little tile that I've got on my desk. The kids got little tiny pots.