Hamilton Gardens revisited

Yesterday we went to Hamilton Gardens again in an attempt to find the river path along the Waikato River. We went towards the sign saying "Jetty" but didn't find what we were looking for. We found other unexplored sights though! It seems like every time one visits the gardens there is something new to discover.

Portion of a wood carving mural in a glass case in the Pavilion. Photo is of about a third of it. It took two artists 7 000 hours to complete

Looks like a modern sculpture but it is just a tree

Out and about in Hamilton

There are some peculiarities to New Zealand that we've found interesting.

• Grocery stores similar to Checkers or Pick 'n Pay are open seven days a week until 10pm at night.
• In summer the sun sets at 9.45pm.
• Togs and jandles mean a swimming costume and slip slops.

We are enjoying glamping in our roomy tent. Our morning view from our bed is of forest and birds. 

We have taken some trips in and around Hamilton. We went for breakfast at the Punnet on Boxing day.

Playground included a boat that kids could climb onto and in

Breakfast was rather expensive - R300 for a breakfast of hash brown, bacon and scrambled egg with cappuccino and R50 for a plate of chips that the kids shared.  Most things we expect to pay double for but this was much more than that.

We had a picnic at Claudelands  play park (which was built by the Rotary.)  There is a foofie slide (which they call Flying Fox) as well as other playground equipment that was new to us.

 There were a number of shaded gazebos with picnic tables and benches but there were none vacant and we sat on the grass in the shade.

The park itself is huge and after lunch we went for a walk in Jubilee Park Boardwalk which is like walking through forest.

We've also been to a bike park, which is quite similar to the one down the road from us although the traffic lights didn't seem to be working when we were there.

Hamilton is quite famous for the Hamilton Gardens which is a meandering adventure into different kinds of gardens, eg the Japanese garden,

 A Chinese Garden, incorporating a Bamboo forest,

European gardens,

...and even an ancient Mauri garden.

We ran out of energy before we ran out of gardens.

We have also been to visit friends of the family at a holiday cottage at Raglan Beach. It is right on the water and the kids were able to go canoeing.

 It is close to a small airport and we saw a plane towing a glider higher and higher.

I get a little confused about the difference between suburbs, towns and villages. We have been to so many places nearby. 

Today we had plans to meet my cousin and his wife at the Hamilton Gardens.  We had just driven down the long driveway servicing about five houses, when we noticed we had a flat tyre. We limped back up the driveway again and put on the biscuit spare. We knew we had to have the tyre fixed. It's not a matter of driving to the nearest garage less than a kilometer away as we do in South Africa. Our son recommended a place he uses. We had to go to Te Rapa (suburb? town?) about fifteen minutes away to a specialist tyre centre. We used Google Maps and inadvertently went to the wrong one (the intended one was next door.) They said it would be at least two hours before they could even look at the tyre so I phoned my cousin and they came to fetch us. They took us to a coffee shop on the shores of Lake Karapiro in Cambridge, not far from where they live at the base of Sanctuary Mountain, an ecological island enclosed by a 3,400 hectare mountain with a 47 km pest proof fence.

After cappuccino, chips and chat, they took us back to the tyre place. We needed a new tyre. Originally the price was 90 NZ$ but we were eventually only charged 75 NZ$ (not sure why.) Brian was inspired to give the man we dealt with our last Gideon testament.  Maybe this whole convoluted scenario was God's plan to give His Word to one Kiwi? Please pray that this testament may change a life.

Message for the day.

For some reason this post didn't get published. It was written on 17 December.

We have just left Orere Point. We only stayed one night.

I will remember...

the message on the office wall,

the instrumental praise music played in the bathrooms,

the abundant bird life,

and the hungry ducks.

As I was having breakfast this morning, a group of young adults from some oriental country came in carrying food.  One of them was wearing this T shirt.

So that was my message for the day.

Hot Water Beach and Cathedral Cove

We stayed at Hot Water Beach Top Ten for three days. Compared to the other holiday parks we had stayed at, it was much busier and more international. Although there were five gas hobs, each with two plates, one had to wait for a plate to be free. People of different nationalities and languages went about cooking their different meals without communicating with each other except to ask whether they were using this pot or that  toaster.

Although we had managed to fix the leak in the mattress, it sprung another and we couldn't find it so for three days we went to bed on a reasonable mattress and woke up on the ground.

As Top Ten members, we got the free hire of a spade for the beach. Two hours either side of low tide, one can dig a hole and have it fill with hot water from underground thermals in a certain area. Low tide was 10pm the first night so we went to the beach after supper, armed with our spade.

It was amazing to see all the people lounging in their pools in the dark.

Our big bonus was seeing glow worms in the foliage on the way back. (Sorry no photographic evidence)

The next morning we aimed for the 10.30am low tide.

 This was an amazing international sociable event. We found a hot stream and were beginning our hole when a friendly New Zealand lady and her family invited us into an empty one just above theirs. We demolished the intervening wall to make a larger one. People from many nations were invited into our pool. We met German, American, British and of course, New Zealand bathers and experienced all the friendly interactions that were missing in the kitchen.

In the afternoon we went to explore Cathedral Cove. Two and a half hike up steep slopes there and back but well worth the effort.

The stars (when it is not raining) are stunning.

We are presently staying with family in Hamilton and I will only post if we go somewhere interesting. I want to wish all my followers a wonderful and blessed Christmas.

Whangarei (pronounced Fahn ga ray)

It had to happen some time! Our mattress sprung a leak! .......We arrived in Whangarei on Saturday afternoon. Once we’d pitched our tent and settled ourselves, it was time to start supper. We got chatting to an English couple from Yorkshire in the dining area. The days are long here. If you want to catch the sunset, you’re looking at 8.30 to 9 pm. By the time we got back to the tent we noticed our blow-up mattress was no longer the firm, plump thing it had been when we last saw it. It was getting a bit late to start making a noise with the electric pump so we decided to live adventurously and sleep on the floor of the tent. After all, I was, until recently a Girl Guide leader.

Sunday morning dawned misty and overcast. We had allowed ourselves an hour after breakfast to try to find the leak in our mattress, before we headed to church, but we were once again delayed by chatting to interesting people in the dining area.

I received a video that morning from my cousin in New Zealand, Edward, with whom I haven’t been in contact since I informed him of our proposed trip to New Zealand about six months ago. It was the Christmas version of the Bohemian Rhapsody.

We found our way to the Central Baptist Church of Whangarei. The first thing we noticed was a sign on the door telling us there would be a community lunch after the service. In church  we saw children and adults dressed in nativity costumes. I was arrested by one of the slides that flashed while waiting for the service to start.

The service consisted of a well-rehearsed production, including the congregation in singing and playing a game in two teams about the Christmas events. It started with the Christmas version of the Bohemian Rhapsody. I don’t believe in co-incidences like that. I think God just wanted to bless me, or give me a message.

The angel's announcement to Mary.

At the lunch afterwards, we met a lovely couple, Vicky and Dave who had been commissioned to look after us.  We recognised Vicky as the angel. We enjoyed chatting at length to them.

After a lunch of pita bread with ham and melted cheese with salads (Brian had a pie) we went off to the Kiwi museum for which I had bought a Groupon. We first went to the Kiwi house because we just made feeding time. Kiwis are night birds and very sensitive to light and noise so no photography and we had to speak in whispers. We did, however, get to see a Kiwi scrubbing around in the ground for buried food. They are larger than I imagined, about the size of a turkey without its tail.

This bicycle was part of the touring Anne Frank exhibition. It was buried to keep it from being confiscated by the Germans.

We found out about the Giant Moa, which is related to the Ostrich.

I was also impressed by one of the first metal printing presses, which worked with a system of weights and levers allowing a full page of a newspaper to be printed at a time.

Part of the museum complex was also Heritage Park, a series of old buildings including a railway and station. We were lucky to be able to have a train and tram ride. The engine was the last new steam locomotive to be imported to New Zealand in 1955.
The trip went past picturesque farmland ...

and linked us with the tram.

The rides are organised by a club and only run once a month. We were fortunate to be in the right place at the right time.

We wandered around the other buildings, saw the Oruaiti Chapel. When settlers arrived in Doubtless Bay in 1859 in Oruaiti, they built New Zealand's smallest church from a single felled Kauri tree. Originally both Anglican and Wesleyan missions used it but it was moved onto Methodist property in Whangarei in the 1940s. It is still used for weddings.

Brian was impressed to see a Gideon bible on the pulpit.

Other buildings we saw included the blacksmith's forge.

After we were quite museumed out (and needed ice cream to recover) we made our way to the Whangarei waterfall.

At one of the lookout points a young girl approached us and invited us to carol singing and sausage sizzle to be held at a church nearby at 5.30. Although at first it appeared to be only young people, kids and teenagers, they were very friendly and went out of their way to talk to us and ask questions about South Africa. Later on who should we see among the increasing crowd but Dave and Vicky from the Baptist Church! They said it's a yearly event and they come every year.

Queuing for the sausage sizzle.

All together another blessed Sunday!

When we got back to camp, we were easily able to identify the air leak in our mattress (wonder if it had anything to do with one of the young girls praying for it?) and fixed it with a patch my foresighted daughter-in-law had given me.

Wagener and Cape Reinga

We arrived yesterday at Wagener Holiday Park after a quick stop at Pack n Save to replenish our food supplies. We had asked for a harbour view site and this was our view this morning.

As we had noticed with other holiday parks, the walls of the kitchen, bathrooms and  laundry are beautifully painted.

We had arranged a tour to Cape Reinga through the Camp office. We were taken to the meeting point on Ninety Mile Beach by Kate from the office. She told us about the wild horses and wild pigs in the forest. In this area they had a problem with sand dunes creeping and decimating grazing land. They stabilised them by firstly planting marram grass which has runners and deep roots, then sowing lupins on top of the grass to enrich the nitrogen in the soil and then planting pine trees which can be used for gum poles. We met our transport on the beach.

First view of Ninety Mine Beach

Our vehicle was an all-terrain 4x4 truck/bus conversion.

 Just as well because we rode 70 of the 94 kms on the beach!

We passed Matapia Island where white herons rest (not nest). The white feathers were washed up on the beach and collected by the Mauri as treasures. The chief got to wear the feathers woven into his cloak. Nobody else could wear them.

Along the beach we were hailed by a ranger. He asked our driver to take a badly sun-burned hiker to Kaitai. This is normal practice. The 90 Mile Beach Hike is very popular, especially among young people ( Although we did hear about a 73 year old woman who managed it.). It takes a fit person 3 days and others 5 days to complete the hike, sleeping among the bushes at night.

At Te Paki Stream, we left the beach and rode along the stream to tall sand dunes.

 There the more adventurous of our party surfed down them on a surf board. Our team was at the top when another tour bus arrived and they were climbing up while our team were coming down.

Our driver, Selwyn, is a Mauri from the area, his father from the Te Aupuri tribe and his mother from the adjoining one. He told us anecdotes about his childhood, how he and his siblings (all 14 of them) used to gather muscles and other shellfish for food, how the brothers all played rugby, and all about his family homesteads. He kept our interest throughout the morning and afternoon. When Brian asked him if he followed sport and rugby in particular, he said "religiously". They had an interesting discussion.

Cape Reinga itself is a spiritual place and out of respect, people don’t eat there. So we veered off to Tapotupotu Bay where a picnic lunch was laid out for us. Lovely fresh rolls, sausage, cheese, chips, muesli bars, biscuits as much as we liked. We could also help ourselves to juice or tea or coffee with boiling water from thermos flasks.

Finally we made it to Cape Reinga, past the most northern inhabitants, where the power lines stop. We had forty five minutes to walk to the light house and back. Like Cape Point, it was a very steep walk, the return journey being worse than the trip down.

We saw the turbulence where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean…

The Maria van Diemen Cape,

The sacred Te Renrenga Wairua where there is a tree, the roots of which make a network of steps and the Mauri myth/tradition tells how the recently departed spirits throw themselves down into the ocean there to be re-united with their loved ones in the mythical land of Hawaiki.

In actual fact, Cape Reinga is not the most northerly point of New Zealand. North Cape is. It is closed however because some rare lizards and other rare species live there and the government wants to protect them.

We drove back southwards along state highway 1, stopping at Te Kao, the community area of Selwyn’s people. We stopped at a little shop owned by his family for very welcome ice cream.

Our next stop was Rarawa Beach where I took off my hiking boots and walked in the waves, after Selwyn had driven the truck/bus right to the water's edge. It is a place where school kids often have leadership camps at the end of their junior school years.

Finally we were dropped back at Houhora harbour, a two minute walk back to our camp. This was certainly one of the highlights of our Northland exploration.

After many sunny days, we had a downpour this evening. Hope the tent will get dry for packing up tomorrow, when we travel to Whangerei on our way back slowly to our family.