The last 7 days feel like we've had a holiday within our holiday and, at the same time, like we've traveled through space and time! Our base has been the very lovely City Centre B&B in Hamilton, with our very friendly hosts Ann and Pete. Hamilton isn't really one of those places that draws in the tourists, not for a week anyway. If you do visit, it's probably for a couple of hours on your way south from Auckland. Strangely, though, it is somewhere Jon and I have both visited before. I first came here in 2000 and returned in 2004 and 2008. Jon was also here in 2008, but about 10 days before me (and we didn't know each other then). My friend Anna lives here - I met her her when we both lived in London in 2000 (after my first visit to Hamilton) and my last visit was timed for her wedding to Andrew. This visit was all about catching up... Anna and her family all wanted to meet Jon for the first time and we got to meet Shanae and Tamara too, Anna and Andrew's two young daughters. By the time we went out for a meal together on our last night in Hamilton, they thought they were coming to "Jon's House" for tea.
Alongside the time spent with Anna and her family, we also did some touristy things, a bit of exploring and the occasional run. Our week started with a visit to the Waikato Museum, which happened to be opening a special cricket exhibition that day, timed to coincide with the start of the Cricket World Cup and looking back over 150 years of cricket at Seddon Park. We're hoping we'll see a "grand display" when we watch both the England ladies and mens teams over the next couple of weeks!
We had a bit of a walk to get to Hamilton Lake parkrun on Saturday morning... We were actually staying quite close to the lake but the start was right round the other side! It was a lovely course, with some of the route along boardwalks by the lake edge. The pukekos (black/blue feathers and a bright red beak) were a bit like the Canada geese from Hanley Park... don't get too close. It was a lot easier to run given the lower temperatures... Southern Hemisphere PBs for both of us! Later, we celebrated with a Mongolian buffet!
On Sunday, we headed over to Hamilton Gardens, which is actually a big tourist attraction in the area and famed for its themed gardens, taking us from NZ to China, Italy, Japan, England and the USA. The most recent addition is the Tudor Garden (testing out the panaramic setting on my camera - below). It did feel a bit like a day out with the National Trust though... there was even a flower show - judging seem to be hotly contested at the National dahlia competition!
On Monday, we combined the eclectic mix of an award winning rose garden (anyone would think we were keen horticulturalists!!!!!) and an exhibition on the musical contributions of the Finn brothers with a visit to Te Awamutu.
Depending on your age, you just might remember Split Enz (Neil and Tim) or more likely Crowded House - you might even have Woodface in your CD collection (mostly just Neil). We were lost in the 80s for a little while anyway.
In case you were worried, we've also been building in plenty of time for cake. Our new favourite cafe in Hamilton was called Mavis & Co - the meringue was delicious - but the hot chocolates and waffles make Theobroma a close second.
Our round the world adventures in Hamilton continued on Tuesday with a trip to a tea plantation, the only one in NZ. The tea bushes were brought to NZ from Taiwan by an aspiring tea grower in the early 1990s and over 20 years later, there is now a plantation and a high quality crop of green, oolong and black tea (actually all from the same tea variety, the variation comes from the amount of oxidation once the leaves are picked... just to prove I was paying attention on the tour and not just focusing on the cakes in my afternoon tea).
Our final adventure in space and time took us to an alternate reality... Middle Earth! The Hobbit / Lord of the Rings movie set for Hobbiton is at a place called Matamata, not far from Hamilton. The whole town seems to have been taken over by all things Tolkien... the pizzas at the Redoubt restaurant are named after characters, the information centre has been transformed into a hobbit hole and you can pose next to an endless number of Hobbit signs, murals and statues.
The centrepiece though is Hobbiton itself... we went on a tour of the set rebuilt for the Hobbit after the original LOTR hobbit holes were destroyed after filming was complete. The walk through Hobbiton included visits to 44 hobbit holes including Bilbo's home (Bag End), the party tree, the lake and finished at the Green Dragon Inn for specially brewed Hobbit cider!
The attention to detail is incredible - washing hanging on the line, bread at the bakery, honey pots for sale, fish drying on racks, tools in the vegetable garden, signposts around the village, all Hobbit-sized.
And now we're on the road again, first stop Mount Maunganui. We're chilling out in the lounge of the Seagulls Guesthouse listening to Depeche Mode on the radio and drinking rooibos tea - that's just how we rock and roll!
Happy Travels
Liz T
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