Day 9 – North Island – Sunday 14th March 2010

 

We had stayed in a really nice Motel in Hamilton. It was a studio apartment, full kitchen and a wet floor bathroom with a good shower. We departed at 10:00am and drove out via Hamilton Gardens and decided to visit Cambridge. What a good idea that turned out to be. A lovely town, very horsey, very pretty. Had a little tootle around the suburbs. Tree lined boulevards is what we found. Then drove down into the town centre. It was really busy and we couldn’t see at first what the crowds were getting up to, then realised the whole town was set out for a Sunday Market. Brilliant. We parked up and had a very pleasant hour mooching about the streets and taking the occasional photo.

The town clearly has a highly developed social conscience. This was apparent from the number of stalls that were set up to raise money for various causes. I took a photo of the welcome to Cambridge sign and on closer inspection I see it has further signs attached to it for the local Masonic Lodge, the Lions, the Rotary and other organisations. In town we found the Masonic Hotel and the Sheffield Court.

We left at 11:30 to return to Hamilton Gardens where we met up with Ed and Trish’s daughter and grandchildren for a picnic. Celia and Hugh drove down to meet us and take us back to their home. We all had a great time in the park. Took more photos but this time they were family photos. Ed and Trish have two daughters and a son. The daughters are Paula Caroline. Paula brought her two children, Spencer and Samara. Lovely kids. Absolutely stuff full of energy. Ed chased them around for a bit and they thought that was great. Talk about lively.

After the picnic we had a walk around the pond where model boats were being sailed. We then went and had a look at the multiple gardens that were themed for particular countries. Botanical gardens but done very nicely.

All too soon we had to depart and bade a fond farewell to Ed and Trish who had looked after us so well and taken us all over the place. We really appreciate what they have done for us. We then set off on the drive north back to Auckland and on to Maraetai. We had a lovely evening meal cooked by Celia with a little fishy help from Hugh. If you remember last week when we first arrived at Maraetai, we had a walk and we came across a boat that was drivable on wheels. It wasn’t an amphibious vessel like the duck we went on in Rotorua. It was a proper boat that had legs installed with wheels on the end that could be lowered and locked in place and you could drive along the shoreline and drive into the water. Then raise the legs and sail away. Anyway, the proud owners of this new boat took it out for a spot of fishing yesterday and caught a load of red snapper. They very kindly gave some to Celia and Hugh and we feasted on that this evening, with a lovely homemade ratatouille. Excellent stuff.