If you are on a tight time schedule: one way of getting to experience a small, but representative, part of the gorge and its walkways is to park up at the Waihi Station. Then take the trip to Waikino Railway Station and the 15 to 30 minutes Victoria Battery walkway.

The Waikino Railway Station is at the other end of a nostalgic 20 to 30-minute slow-train ride along the old Goldfields Railway track to the eastern end of the Karangahake Gorge. You travel in either an enclosed standard carriage or for uninterrupted views, an open no-seats boxcar.

At the railway station you can take time out for a quiet coffee and snacks, or a full meal at the on-station cafe.

From there you can take the Victoria Battery walk to the old ore-crushing site. Here you can take yet another volunteer run tram ride around the site. Either way there is a wealth of information readily available.

Trains depart Waihi and Waikino railway stations three times a day - check with the Waihi Information Centre for the operating timetable. At the time of writing - 2005 - trains left Waihi at 11am; 12.30 and 2 pm, returning at 11.45am; 1.15 and 2.45 pm.