Heart of Mine

Photograph: Peter Robertson

Dominion Post, October 2011–

‘There’s a moment of unease as we are enveloped in darkness, a feeling quickly overtaken by intrigue…’

Lee & Sarah visit Denniston Plateau, on the West Coast, and take a tour of the historic Banbury Mine.

‘A little way into the mine, we alight the wagon and follow our headlamp beams through the cool, dusty passageways. John, our tour guide, relays ripping yarns in between allocating hands-on jobs such as firing the shots, hewing the coal and clipping the wagons. As we move through the maze, the mine creaks and rats squeak, and men call out from the dark. I am fooled more than once into thinking they’re real rather than recorded, although I don’t make that mistake with the holographic ghost of John Lomas, who emerges to retell his tale.’

Take a journey inward at Denniston.

Or rattle down the Incline on YouTube.