6th October 2009
Up and about early this morning to a beautiful day. It had been raining hard in the night which seemed to have cleared the air and the day was looking promising, which was good news as we had a long drive ahead of us from Kaihu right down to Hamilton.
We attempted to finish the jigsaw puzzle over breakfast but failed, so left it for Rachel and Claire to hopefully complete.
The start of the journey south took us through countryside that looked very similar to Wales and England. There really isn’t much about on the west coast up this way. There’s the odd house every now and again, and then a small town, but in between there’s a whole load of nothing apart from lots of cows! We were expecting to see loads of sheep, but so far the cows are winning up this way.
About an hour and a half north of Auckland we passed through a place called Brynderwyn - so it really was like being back home!
We called into the same cafe in Warkworth as we’d stopped at on the way up for a bit of lunch, and then hit the road again for the final part of the journey, which took us right through Auckland and all the horrendous traffic that that involves. We emerged the other side unscathed, and the roads quickly quietened down again, and before long the main “motorway” south had become a single lane in each direction with not much traffic on it at all.
We arrived in Hamilton around 3pm, so the journey had taken us just over 5 hours. The hostel we’re staying at is really nice, and very welcoming - it should do us just fine for a couple of nights.
Fiona, the owner at the hostel recommended a local Indian just down the road, so we took ourselves off there for a meal. The food was okay, but not as good as Spice back in Thatcham! On the way back we called into Cooks Cafe and Bar for a pint and foind that they’re showing the Wales v All Blacks match early on Sunday morning. Excellent news :)