Blogs from Hamilton, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania

We spent four days with Debbie, Criss and Oscar. It was a relaxing time, no pressure to do anything in particular and great conversation and friendship.Debbie made us ham and cheese toasties for breakfast each morning and dinner most nights.We went to Hamilton Gardens twice. The first day it was to see the new Egyptian garden and renew acquaintance with some old favourites. The second time we took Oscar for a walk in the Rose Garden This was stunning, with some beautiful colours and a huge variety of breeds. On Wednesday Criss drove us all to Raglan. This is a lovely seaside village at the mouth of the Waikato river where we marvelled at the strong surf and the number of surfers paddling out for their turn on the waves. We had a lovely lunch there, ... read more

sitting watching cricket. Brings joy to your heart watching New Zealand take it to England.... read more

. On Friday morning after a slow start, we drove to Waikanae Beach.Here we stopped for coffee and a friand at the Front Room Cafe.Then a walk across the road took us to the "beach". There was a king tide and the water was lapping right up to the sandhills and the waves were crashing in. I was amazed at the amount of debris on the shore, many logs and branches washing in and out with the sea's ebb and flow. There was no room for a stroll so we drove along the foreshore and stopped further down only to be met with the same sight. What was impressive was the view of Kapiti Island not far offshore, rising green and stately from the stormy sea. We then decided to check out Paraparaumu beach further south. ... read more

We woke up and headed a few doors down to find the closest coffee and breakfast, which happened to be a gym cafe type thing. Works for me! Latte and peanut butter protein ball. We assembled at the car, loaded up and headed to the first stop of the day for our continued roadtrip- Hobbiton. Initially when I'd planned out the entire itinerary for this trip, we were just heading to the South Island. My friends reviewed my plans and Nathan stated, "Looks good but you need to make one change. Include Hobbiton." I looked at my map- we had to fly out of Auckland anyway to get to Fiji, so if we just roadtripped south it was definitely doable. "Done," I replied. A good chunk of our group was pretty into Lord of the Rings, ... read more

Not many pictures of the fun we had around Hamilton, and specially the day spent at the Waitamo caves. Funny, it's the first full hot sunny day around, and we are spending hours well under in the dark! We are staying at the Ibis in Hamilton. Nothing to write about the place, expect that we are bang in the center of Hamilton. The city is way bigger than little Rotorua and fell a more fun place to live. At least there is a decent choice of bars and restaurants around the city. We actually did not spent much of our time in Hamilton during the day. It was rather an hour South...under earth at the Waitamo caves. The Waitamo caves are very well known for their glow worms. If you keep silent, and with no lights, ... read more