Thames Attractions

Thames, the largest place on the Coromandel Peninsula, lies on the west side at the point where the Waihou River flows into the Firth of Thames. It is made up of the two earlier settlements of Shortland (the port) and Grahamtown (the old gold-miners' settlement). Captain Cook anchored in the Firth of Thames in November 1769 and surveyed the area at the mouth of the Waihou River. The local Maoris were friendly.

After the discovery in 1852 of seams of gold-bearing quartz in the Coromandel Range the population of the peninsula increased enormously in the 1870s, for a time passing the 20,000 mark. At that time the town is said to have had more than 80 hotels. The gold rush reached its peak in 1873, but even before the first world war the gold was almost worked out, and the population left Thames altogether or turned to agriculture.