20th February Hamilton Gardens

Unusually the day started with a bit of rain but it didn't last long. The temperature was hovering about 26°C for most of the day.

First activity of the day was a quick trip to see a local dentist as muggins here has had a grumbling tooth for the last few days. As we're off on our travels again on Saturday, and not likely to be spending much time in the same place, it seemed sensible to get it seen. 

I've now got a couple of antibiotics prescriptions - started on one and one in hand just in case I have more problems before getting home. If it's not sorted I think the tooth that was recently saved might have to come out 😬. So fingers crossed that the antibiotics work.

Anyway the dentist was lovely and treatment costs and prescriptions were on parr with NHS prices. I went and consoled myself by buying a dress in a sale - well you just have to!

Once we'd located Amy and Freddie we drove off to the nearby city of Hamilton where we visited the gardens. An amazing selection of all types of garden, plants, trees and flowers.

This was taken on probably the second lap of the lake as we got a bit lost - we reckon the signage wasn't very clear!

We came across an opportunity to replicate another photo from 2008. This was originally taken in Rotorua but we didn't find anything suitable when we visited yesterday.

Freddie's attempt in the Maori garden.

Driving Miss Daisy in the Colonial Garden.

In the Surrealist Garden.

Juliet's balcony in the Italian Garden 😀.

Egyptian Garden was very colourful.

There were loads more but these were my favourites. By this time we'd been pottering about for several hours so it was time for lunch. We headed towards the city centre for food and the elusive sew on patch for Hamilton - getting ones in the North Island is definitely more of a challenge in comparison to South Island.

On our trip back we went via Cambridge. The last time we were here with Amy we came to watch an Olympic parade to welcome back the NZ team and medal winners. We drove over the main bridge over an impressive river and gorge.

Back at Bridget's after dinner and an evening swim it was time for a haircut. There's 5 weeks until we return so plenty of time to grow if it ends up too short 😂.

Tomorrow it looks like a day trip to Lake Taupo and Hukka Falls.