Driving from Tauranga to Hamilton

A couple of days ago we delivered another car-load of ephemera to my daughter's new flat in Hamilton.

It was a gloomy, cloudy and showery sort of a day. One that I would not usually have shared on my blog. But, in keeping with the new honesty, I now do.

On the journey, my passengers kindly snapped some images out of the windows.

Some of these were so dark I had to tweak the exposure. This then mucked up the colours, which I then felt obliged to further tweak. So some of these images will look a bit odd, perhaps. Sorry.

Here's the route. It takes us from the outskirts of Tauranga, over the Kaimai (K'eye-m'eye) Range of hills then through the lush dairy country around Matamata; through the be-treed town of Cambridge, best known for its racehorses; then to Hamilton, a University city and agricultural service centre. We stop in the Hamilton Gardens to eat our Subway rolls.

At the summit of the Kaimais (625 m or 2050 ft asl) we are in the clouds today.

The clouds roll over the range. The tops are conservation land - part of the Kaimai- Mamaku Forest Park.

Coming down the other side of the range:

At the base of the Kaimais, we take the turning towards Hamilton.

We are down on the plains now:

Maize is grown and chopped green for maize silage, or ripened and the kernels dried for calf stock food - one brand is called 'Moozlee'.

Here is the little church that serves the agricultural community of Hinuera:

The river that used to run through the Hinuera Valley changed its course and left the interesting stone outcrops each side of the road for us to look at and utilise for building. Although probably not intentionally.

The quarry for the local Hinuera stone:

The roundabout on the main shopping street in Cambridge:

On the outskirts of Cambridge, in the grounds of a retirement complex, an old water tower is a popular roost for local birds:

A workman moves through the Hamilton Gardens with his trusty orange plastic tape and his trusty cones.

There are a number of interesting 'theme gardens' here.

This is the Japanese garden. A serene paradise in the middle of the city: