Friday, November 11, 2011

Driving on a sunny day


Today is probably the nicest weather day we've had since coming to NZ. We spent most of the day in the car putting in a good six or seven hours driving from Kaitia in the north to Hamilton south of Auckland.

Notable event included the ferry across to Rawene. Shannon's parents called while we were on the ferry and were planning on going to Red Deer for a farming technology show.

We had a quick lunch a cafe in Rawene before continuing on south to Waipoua Forest. Just off the highway is Tane Mahota, the world's oldest known kauri tree, sprouting from a seed probably when Christ was born. It was a pretty huge tree with Maori aboriginal significance - giver of all life. In this respect, it reminded me of the tree in the movie Avatar.

There seemed to be several hikes in Waipoua Forest, but Shannon was bored of the forest already, and we were anxious to get as far south as possible.

We kept going, hit Auckland at rush hour, but eventually made it down to Hamilton.

Whenever I think of a city named Hamilton, I think of smoke stacks and industry. There were some big factory buildings but Hamilton seems like a nice city.

There was a motel strip where we parked the car and just walked up and down the street looking at rooms and inquiring about prices. There was only one place that actually gave us a "deal," the owner was quite friendly and offered us a double bed for $64CAD. All the rest gave us the regular rates, you could tell, and despite prompting, didn't go lower.

The Gardena Court Motel had a small kitchen with fridge, two burner stove, tv, a lumpy double bed and clean shower. While it's not the most beautiful room, I thought the owners did a decent job with the details like Cadbury chocolates on the pillows, three sets of cutlery and pots for cooking, and neatly laid out shampoo and soaps. I'm all for family run places.

Being a Friday night, it was busy downtown Hamilton. Of course, downtown is only one street, but it was on street with no parking at all. We finally found a spot right in front of the Internet cafe, and had a nice cafeteria style dinner. We surfed for an hour before going back to the hotel.

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