Sunday in Hamilton

As it was Sunday, we joined our family at church this morning. Our rental car has been resting here in Hamilton for a couple of days so we took it off to the Gateway Church for an outing and also because we wanted to buy another car charger for our cell phones. (The one I bought in South Africa didn't work.)

 We were warmly welcomed into the church and the kids and parents got bar-coded for Kid's Church.

In the entrance was a very effective chalk drawing of the three wise men.

My six year old grandson decided to stroke the camels, smearing some of the chalk lines before one of the welcome stewards stopped him.

The church reminded us a lot of our home church, Rosebank Union. It is a well attended church with enthusiastic but sincere worship and friendly people. After the service we got chatting to somebody called Jamie who told us he was a Member of Parliament and welcomed us to New Zealand on behalf of the Prime Minister.

After lunch we went to a Christmas Tree Farm to get the tree the family had pre-booked.

In a tree quite close to ours was a little nest with two small cream and brown eggs.

The tree was cut for us while we waited and we bought a stand that secures the tree as well as providing a reservoir of water.

At Kmart we got to scan our own purchases and use our world currency card for the first time, not without a little trepidation.
We also found out that trollies are called trundlers in New Zealand.

Tomorrow we head off to Auckland for three days to do a sightseeing bus tour. We are taking a little tent, camping chairs, a blow up mattress and a few odds and ends for our trip to Northland after that. The adventure begins.