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OCEANA GOLD AND TOURISM HORIZONS We're keen to take school groups up to the Globe, offering the opportunity for schools and education groups to request the special school rate and offering specialised tours to cater to the school curriculum needs. The tour incorporates how gold was mined historically in the area (1870s onwards) and compares present day mining methods on-site up at the Globe gold mine. As well as visiting one of the few current day open pit gold mining operations in New Zealand, our tour is special in that we are able to walk through the processing plant. Climbing up to the height of a two storied building, we see close at hand many of the steps taken to extract the gold from the quartz bearing rock, as well as visiting the control room to see how every aspect of the plant is continually monitored. School groups of all ages are encouraged. We adapt the level of detail and delivery of information to suit each age group from base information and tour for the younger ones progressively through to a more technical tour for older students. Transport is in our 20-seater 4WD bus which is well suited to the mine environment. It has air conditioning to keep people cool in summer and lovely and warm in winter. For groups over 20 we have two choices - if time is of essence, we can transport the group up to the mine in a combination of our bus / school transport. The road from the state highway up to the Globe mine entrance is a well maintained two-lane gravel road, which although very steep in places, is suitable for buses and doesn't pose any problem to most drivers. We would leave the school transport at the mine entrance / office area and split the group into two. One group travelling in our bus to the lookout point, while the other walks through the processing plant, then swapping over. The second option is to split into two groups in Reefton with the first group going directly up to the mine and the second group remaining in Reefton. This can work well allowing time for lunch for the group in town and can incorporate visits to any or all of the Reefton Visitor Centre, Bearded Miners and the Blacks Point Museum and stamper battery. We can cater for larger school groups, having taken groups of 65 and 80. Typically we work out a schedule for these in conjunction with the organising teachers depending upon time available etc. For the tour we supply protective clothing of a hi-vis vest, safety glasses and a hard hat. Importantly, all visitors to the mine need to comply with Oceana Gold's dress code and wear sturdy walking shoes, long trousers to the ankle and long sleeved shirts to the wrist. Soft sneakers or bare legs are not allowed. As part of interpreting the historic mining we visit the Blacks Point Museum's gold stamping battery and drive around the historic area of Reefton. For some schools we have extended this with a visit to the Blacks Point Museum as well, and in town a visit to the Bearded Miners. Refer the itinerary website page for full tour details. For schools whose time is limited or interest is more specific, we offer a mine only tour which works equally well. The mine only tour is 1 1/2 - 2 hours, compared to the longer usual 2 1/2 hour tour. OCEANA GOLD AND TOURISM HORIZONS
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