Waitomo Caves = one of THE tourist destinations in the North Island. We decided it must be worth going to. We were right! It was great to do the guided walk through the Ruakuri cave then explore it on tyre tubes with the ‘Black Labyrinth’ option. A lot of fun, especially when we had to jump from a small ledge over a waterfall. Best part was when we turned off our headlamps, all held on to each other and floated down the underground river looking up at the glow worms on the roof. Very special.
Raglan
The place we stayed in near Raglan was quite something. We were greeted by a couple of friendly guys who invited us to take a hat from the hat stand as it was wacky hat day! I declined (trying to be considerate after lots of cuddles with little nieces had unfortunately led to a recent fight with head lice- horrible horrible). Our host then appeared offering us herbal teas and took us to our little cabin and showed us around. He pointed out all the free ice-cream in the freezer (which we unfortunately didn’t take advantage of), an exercise room with gym equipment (perhaps to work off all the calories from the free ice-cream) and of course the lounge with the hats, musical instruments and comfy chairs. Only 1 toilet (aside from the lemon tree I think I recall which outdoor campers were welcome to pee on) and 1 bathroom for numerous guests was the downside but it was otherwise a cool place to spend a night.
We ate very average Indian take-aways overlooking Raglan beach- which was anything but average. We thoroughly enjoyed just sitting on a bench, looking at the views of the sea & the people and horses bedlow that looked like specks, dwarfed by the huge landscape, watching the comings and goings as the sun disappeared. A truly gorgeous place.
Leaving the area the next day we called in at Wairēinga/ Bridal Veil Falls… What unexpected beauty in the middle of nowhere!
Bridal Veil Falls
The Tron!
The prize for the best surprise on our trip goes to the Hamilton Gardens- wow! No wonder this won international garden of the year in 2014 at the International Garden Tourism Awards in France — it is fabulous. We loved all the country themed gardens (Italian renaissance, Chinese, traditional Maori etc.), incredible detail and design and all so different. The sustainable backyard garden with the bee-hives above the verandah was also inspiring. Such a great place, really easy to navigate without missing any of the good bits and the friendly volunteer in the information centre told us about a great icecream shop nearby which we visited …twice! They had several delicious vegan ice creams to choose from as well. So good!
Spot the beehive above
I would make a point of visiting Hamilton again just to see the Gardens and enjoy the ice-cream but the fact that Seddon Park is here is also a strong draw card. I shall time my next visit for a One Day International. We saw a T20 cricket match here where the Blackcaps won against Pakistan without losing a wicket! Fantastic batting by Guptill and the wonderful KW. Note, I rather like that Kane Williamson shares my initials.
Seddon Park: NZ vs Pakistan T20
Hobbiton
We decided to visit the Hobbiton Movie set in Matamata. We quickly tried to forget the exorbitant ticket price and just enjoyed the tour. Our American guide was great, pointing out lots on our walk around the Shire and giving us time for photos. It was a gorgeous sunny day and the location in the middle of rural nowhere just beautiful.
The Shire, Hobbiton
Some of the hobbit doors were very small- to make Gandalf for example look tall, and other doors were large – to make the hobbits look hobbit size. Outside each hobbit door and in the windows were small details, e.g. bread at the baker’s house, and some beautiful gardens… most of this would not have been seen in the movies.
It is amazing the attention to detail that was given to everything. A prime example is the oak tree above Bag End. In the LOTR films a real oak tree was cut into bits, all numbered, and brought to the set where it was pieced together again ready for the filming. Years later when they returned to film the Hobbit movies they needed a tree to look like the first one (which was now dead of course). This involved acquiring 376,000 vinyl leaves from Taiwan, all hand painted and wiring them on to the tree. After this process was completed, Peter Jackson decided the leaves weren’t quite the right shade of green. So he hired interns to repaint them all. Incredibly costly and time consuming exercise for a tree that apppears in a movie for only 20 seconds, and from a distance!! Really made me think how much of a perfectionist Peter Jackson must be with the incredible attention to detail in the whole place. It was a lovely afternoon tour finishing off with a drink at the Green Dragon Inn.
Beaches
New Zealand really does have so many incredibly picturesque beaches, not that the water is very warm, but at least in the North Island it’s a few degrees warmer than in the South. We enjoyed so many gorgeous swims, splashes in the waves and walks along beaches during the summer.
‘Little Bay’ beach near our workaway stay with Tim at the Karuna Falls community on the Coromandel Peninsula had a library in a re-purposed mussel farm float hanging on a branch at the beach. Nothing in it that took my fancy but a cool idea indeed. See the Around Auckland post for more on beaches.
Beach Library, Little Bay, Coromandel
Little Bay, Coromandel
Cathedral Cove, Coromandel
Birthday swim, Ohope, Bay of Plenty