Harriet very kindly dropped me off in town for my Inter City bus departing at 9.10am due to arrive in Hamilton at 6.15pm so quite a journey. We went through some of the places I’d been before, of course, stopping at the same cafe where Murray had recommended the burger, and in Taupo where I thought it would have been nice to quickly say hi to Gary and Sandra, but each stop was just 40 minutes. We went across the desert road again but had a bad view of the 3 mountains due to intermittent rain and poor visibility. We didn’t get the same fun commentary that we had before with Murray, this driver was a bit more serious.
On the journey I had the company of two different elderly ladies. The first, Jan, who was travelling with her husband and sister, and the second whose name I didn’t get as she didn’t stop talking long enough for me to ask, and was clearly only interested in telling me all about herself not asking me anything. I got on very well with Jan and we had a good conversation. She told me that she had taken up running in her late 40s, had run several marathons her slowest time being the same time I’d run my one and only marathon in when she was 75! Her husband had competed in many triathlons and Ironman events but sadly has cancer although at the moment was in remission. They had been travelling for 2 weeks in the South Island visiting various friends and family and were now on their way home in Taupo. In fact we drove right past their home, which she pointed out to me, a modern home they’d had built and invited me to knock on the door should I find myself in Taupo again. She was a very lively and interesting lady of 83 years young.
When we got to Hamilton the houseowners of my sit, Derek (a Scot) and Leanne (a Kiwi) were there to collect me. They picked up some fish and chips and took me to their home where I had a guided tour and met their very nice children Callum, aged 15, and Annabelle, aged 13. All the children I’ve met so far at the housesits have been perfectly behaved and personable, Callum and Annabelle being no exception. Derek is a geologist although now works for his wife, a midwife, based at home doing her accounts and bookings. Callum has been an Air Cadet for 3 years aspiring to be a commercial airline pilot and was a very confident and articulate young man. The whole family travelled mainly in the UK housesitting for 18 months when the children were younger and were homeschooled along the way. The difference for me with this housesit is that there are no pets although they do have the occasional visit from a neighbourhood cat called Frankie, who showed up while we were eating, who seems only to come round for the treats they give him, although he will accept a brief stroke. The family was going to Airlie Beach and Hamilton Island (in the Whitsundays) in Oz as it’s the school half term holidays, and they left at 0330 am!
I did nothing very much on Tuesday other than go to the supermarket as the weather was pretty poor so decided to go out on Wednesday, the weather not being much better. On the subject of supermarkets they actually have trolleys here (or ‘trundlers’ as they call them) that move in the directions you want them to move, so how come we don’t have them in the UK? And on the subject of weather I had been using the BBC Weather app but soon realised it wasn’t quite accurate for NZ’s weather so have been using metservice.com. It’s brilliant because not only does it seem to be accurate it also tells you how many layers to wear and whether or not you need a wind proof jacket!
I really hadn’t got my bearings as to where the house was in relation to the centre of town so decided to walk despite having a Suzuki Swift to use. I walked for a rather boring 30 minutes beside the road but then came to the river path (shared as usual by cyclists although I didn’t see a single one) and walked for 90 minutes. I guess the local council has a lot of money as it was beautifully paved with small paving stones all the way along which must have taken months to do. In places there were short board walk bits, which I always like, occasionally going through bush, and all the way along the bank was lined with nice houses. I didn’t take pics as the weather didn’t lend itself to photography.
It’s quite obvious that Hamilton hasn’t got the appeal of Wellington but I’ll make the most of its offerings nonetheless. Also, there are some interesting places to visit further afield. As usual, I popped into the i-Site office in a building housing a small art gallery, local crafts, postcards and souvenirs. I booked a tour for Hobbiton on Friday, which looked reasonable weather-wise.
I then went to the adjacent Waikato Museum which was lovely. There was more art than artefacts and an excellent interactive area for children where they could learn about scientific matters in fun ways. As it’s the children’s half term holidays this week and next there were a few. There was also a large display of ‘All Blacks’ sports photography by Peter Bush, who I discovered was NZ’s leading sports photographer born in 1931 who had also worked as a war correspondent.
I rather liked the gallery of paintings by Melvin Norman Day, who I’d never heard of, born in Hamilton in 1923 relocating with his family to Auckland when he developed breathing problems as a child. His art gained exposure in the UK and in 1963 he became the first NZ student at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London and established a studio to paint. He left most of his paintings to the gallery on his death. I love the style and colours in these paintings in particular:
‘Grand Piano’ 
‘Standing Nude’ (his wife) 
Professor Arundel Del Re
The I-Site office and museum are both located in Victoria Street, one of the main streets in the centre of Hamilton full of shops, cafes and restaurants. Supposedly there are some very nice restaurants in Hamilton although I’m unlikely to sample them as prefer to do my own cooking when I’ve the opportunity in a housesit and thereby saving money. There was a life size statue in the street of ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’ writer, Richard O’Brien, on the site of the former Embassy Theatre where he worked as a hairdresser. I took a bus back ‘home’.
On Friday morning I drove to Matamata where I was to pick up a bus to ‘Hobbiton’ – the main film location. Even the I-Site centre, where I exchanged my voucher for a ticket, was a Hobbit-like building:
The bus took about 15 minutes and on the way there were some short videos shown. As I’ve only ever seen the first of the trilogy of films (which I found rather scary!) and of the books only read ‘The Hobbit’ as a child, which I didn’t much like not being a lover of fantasy, it may seem a strange tour to go on. However I’d had so many recommendations so thought I should, and am glad I did.
It’s certainly a huge money spinner and a lot of work has gone into the creation of a realistic Hobbit town or Hobbiton. When we arrived we were allocated a tour guide called Patrick from Chicago and, yet again, another American who was brilliant at this type of work.
When scouting for a location for the films they were flying in a helicopter, saw the Alexander family’s farm and knew it was perfect. Fortunately for everyone involved the family agreed. After the films, although the location was thought to be secret, word got out and people kept turning up. So Peter Jackson thought it would be a great idea to build Hobbiton properly, and negotiated with Mr Alexander who has no doubt made a killing – good luck to him – but still has enough additional land to continue with a dairy farm.
Patrick told us there are 44 Hobbit homes which have all been made out of real materials, those used for the film had doors made of polystyrene. Each home is different and there are different items in the windows and outside pertaining to the particular character who ‘lives’ there, although you can only go in one of the homes which didn’t have much in it anyway. There are gardeners employed to tend the Hobbit gardens and a team of maintenance men. There’s even smoke coming out of some of the chimneys, a pond and the Green Dragon Inn where we were offered an inclusive drink of stout, lager, ginger beer (all specially made for Hobbiton) or coffee. I thought it was all delightful especially as it’s located in such beautiful countryside, and it has inspired me to watch all the films when I get the opportunity, but maybe not read the books! Did I say that before?
The Green Dragon Inn
We were bussed back to Matamata and I drove from there to Cambridge, which was en route to Hamilton. It is nothing like Cambridge, England but has a lovely, tranquil feel to it. The I-Site lady gave me a heritage walk leaflet and I spent a good hour walking around the sites, one of which was the lovely St Andrews Anglican Church built in 1881 containing a stained glass WWI memorial window showing NZ soldiers climbing the walls of Le Quesnoy in eastern France during the last week of the war. Cambridge is twinned with Le Quesnoy and the window was made in England:
There’s a village green where cricket is played and tree-lined avenues. The town is famous for the breeding and training of thoroughbred horses with mosaics in the pavement all along the main Victoria Street of past winners, a lovely statue of a mare and foal and some Art Deco buildings:
I’d picked up a leaflet in Wellington about the 18th Latin America & Spain Film Festival which was in various NZ towns during September and October and, as luck would have it, in Hamilton this week. From Cambridge I drove to Waikato University (Hamilton’s Uni) and was just in time for a Mexican film ‘Ella es Ramona’ which was a comedy from and very good. It was shown in a small lecture theatre and, for some reason, every 2-3 minutes the lights went on and off. Despite that I enjoyed the film and it was free. The Uni campus looked nice although Massey in Palmerston North has the edge.
I seem to have picked up some sort of virus, probably from the Wellington household, but don’t have a cold so it’s not stopping me doing stuff, just might not be too energetic for a few days. On Sunday, lovely weather, so I drove to Hamilton Gardens which is perhaps the most famous tourist destination in Hamilton and located alongside the Waikato River. Hard to believe now but the central section of the gardens was once the city’s main rubbish dump. There’s a nice video on this link: https://hamiltongardens.co.nz/
There are open gardens, some glasshouses and enclosed gardens in various different styles and from different countries and eras. They are still developing the gardens and will be introducing more styles. There was a model railway exhibition going on which attracted a few people and the cafe was nicely sited overlooking a lake. I spent a pleasant 3 hours walking around and it was, amazingly, free to enter although donations were appreciated.
My day was then complete with a visit to the lovely Lido Cinema for an afternoon showing of ‘Downton Abbey’ – a delight!
On Tuesday 8th I went for a lovely drive west of Hamilton to places recommended by Derek. It really was wonderful with the road twisting and turning having been carved out through glorious countryside which, by now, I’m rather taking for granted. I travelled mainly on State Highways 39 and 23, the latter being particularly scenic, which are their equivalent of our motorways although generally single lane with a speed limit of 100km! Ridiculous speed limits here and not surprisingly there are a lot of accidents. I pulled in a couple of times to let tailgaters overtake so I could enjoy the scenery at a slower speed and stop to take photos:
The first stop was the wonderfully named Bridal Veil Falls reached via a short walking track then down 261 steps to the bottom of the waterfall, although there were viewpoints at the top and midway. It was pretty spectacular. The falls follow the Pakoha River and drop 55m:
Waterfall from the top 
Steps to waterfall 
Waterfall from the bottom 
Waterfall from the bottom 
Waterfall from the middle 
Then it was just a short drive to Raglan. There was an estuary with a few people kayaking but I didn’t think that could have been the beach Derek had mentioned, so just along from there I came to Ngarunui Beach which was more like it. Despite the chill and drizzle, which hadn’t been forecast, there were a fair few people surfing and getting initial instruction on the beach.
I walked along the beach for a short distance, the weather appearing to close in, and wished yet again that I had a dog and was envious of the surfers, although if I could surf I wouldn’t have been doing so then. It also occurred to me that if I did try to learn to surf I wouldn’t be able to get up off my knees let alone balance. Just as I was leaving the beach the sun came out and the view was quite different:
The little town of Raglan was completely geared towards surfing with most shops selling surf clothing, renting boards and offering lessons. I had a quick look around the museum which was in the I-Site building which contained some interesting Maori tools, some European (or Pakeha = non Maori) pipes, a small and tired looking surfing exhibition and details of local war veterans. I thought it would be a super place to stay if you were a keen surfer or eager to learn, with a backpackers’ hostel and lovely hotel. I also liked the old church:
Wednesday 9th turned out to be a lovely day, in fact as the day went on it seemed like a very warm summer’s day – almost too warm, but who’s complaining? I had decided to walk along the river path again with my camera this time. Somehow, although I thought I was ambling along, I seemed to get to town quicker than before so decided to walk further. I marvelled once again at some of the houses overlooking the river but thought that the area wasn’t as scenic as along the same river in Palmerston North.
I headed for the library to get away from the heat for a while and do some research. When I returned from my trip to NZ and Oz 26 years ago I visited my paternal (adoptive) grandmother who was in a home at that stage. I’d brought back a toy koala bear for her which prompted her to tell me that her mother had been born in Auckland. I was flabbergasted as neither she nor my dad had ever mentioned this! I thought it would be interesting to look into it while in NZ and emailed my Uncle (my dad’s only sibling) now aged 83, for information. He sent me his grandmother’s name and told me that her father was a Sergeant in the British Army, served with them in NZ from 1860-1868 before going to Melbourne for 2 years then back home to Yorkshire.
The library is signed up to Ancestry.com but unfortunately I found no trace of my grandmother’s mother nor her father in New Zealand. I did find them on the census back in England and started working back, which was interesting. As I was leaving, a librarian, who I’d given details to, said that if I returned the next day between 10 and 12 there would be volunteers who could help with genealogy. I took the bus home and mowed the lawn, the only job that had been requested of me by Derek and Leanne, and used a petrol mower for the first time.
I took the bus to town the next day and went to the library where there was just one genealogy volunteer, a retired man called Mark who said he was getting over a cold as he coughed and spluttered. He told me that his family had come to NZ in the 1860s from Germany, family name Muller, but that it had changed to Miller, probably during the First World War understandably. While he didn’t get me much further than I’d got we did find the regiment of my grandmother’s grandfather and he gave me a couple of pointers to check. He did say that NZ had been pretty useless in the past at recording births etc which is probably why I couldn’t find that information. After he’d left I carried on with a bit more digging but into the Walpole side.
I spent part of Friday and most of Saturday cleaning and cooking for the return of the family, thinking it would be nice for them not to have to worry about food on Sunday. They returned after midnight on Saturday night.
NeverSayNeverNomad 