Glorious Morning

The morning was spent in Hamilton and the sun shone during our walk by the river where the  morning glory flowers graced the banks in profusion.

The river is the Waikato, the longest in New Zealand at 425 kilometres, which starts in Mount Ruapehu and enters Lake Taupo.  We followed its path away from the lake to the Huka Falls a couple of days ago, and it's very different there from the river running at Hamilton through the Waikato Plain - broad, relatively shallow (at least near the banks) but still flowing at a fair pace. 

The river has also given its name to the district and many of the local sports teams have taken the name.  

Several towns/cities have "public" pianos in the street where anyone can sit down and start to play.  We saw our first in Napier, but there was another in Hamilton today.  It seems a Brit from Essex Played one in Pahia and a clip was put on The Internet which "went viral" and now he hopes to establish a musical career.  Unfortunately I only managed to get a "still" of Dave!

We arrived in Arkles Bay this evening and the accommodation is super - thee rooms really, plus bathroom/toilet.  We're used to having one.  Not only that, but the facilities are definitely up to scratch, and a great deal of care has been taken with the decor.  Add to that the bottle of wine, the chocolates, biscuits and coffee machine, and we're delighted.  

Glorious evening too, as we viewed the unspoilt bay, before going out for a meal to celebrate the acquisition of my additional pension lump sum.

Beyond Our Ken

Dave writes:

We've been waiting for our Satnav pal Ken to screw up so we could produce the headline above and today looked like it.

Driving out of Hamilton he appeared to be taking us south towards Rotorua instead of north to Auckland and beyond.

But a double check proved him right and we had to apologise.

Then, 30 minutes from our destination of the day by Arkles Bay, signs told of a motorway ahead, with a toll.

We felt Ken might have warned us but did the necessary at a pay machine in a service area.

However, on re-joining the road we noticed the motorway was still six kms up the road and our turnoff for Arkles Bay was three kms before that.

So Ken was right again and the headline does not really stand up.

But as they used to say: "Print the legend."

On me bike again

Our latest accommodation is splendid though to call it Beach House is stretching things a bit.

However, many pluses include a welcome bottle of wine and free use of one of their two bikes.

I hopped on one of them and discovered the beach four minutes ride away.

It's part of Arkles Bay, a lovely, unspoilt spot where we plan to walk later.

Cricket Display

We had started our second and final day in Hamilton with visits to the museum and adjacent art gallery.

Museum currently mounting a cricket exhibition as the city is hosting three World Cup matches.

Next up is Ireland v India on March 10. Tough one for the Irish.

On display at the museum is the ball used in Hamilton's first international match back in 1981 as well as some excellent archive material.

Also learnt that Kiwi stalwart Daniel Vettori is a Hamiton lad.

Relief to learn later in the day that England had managed to labour past Scotland.