'I'm always looking for the Hows and the Whys and the Whats,' said Muskrat, 'That is why I speak as I do. You've heard of Muskrat's Much-in-Little, of course?'
'No,' said the child. 'What is it?'
- The Mouse and his Child. Russell Hoban.

Go here to find out more.

Saturday 5 February 2011

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:




6 comments:

  1. Tweaked and re-tweaked, or not, I'm glad your passengers took photos. The area through which you passed on your journey is very beautiful.

    I laughed out loud when I read the name of the cow food. 'Moozly' is quite an appropriate name for a blend that is sure to be 'high-fiber.'

    Nice post.

    The verification word for this comment is 'snowees' and that's what we have here this evening. Not very deep, but snowees just the same. It's 30 degrees (F) and the streets are slick.

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  2. Glad I made you laugh Pat. Take care on those streets.
    Ironically, my thermometer is reading in the 30's today here. That's 30 centigrade of course, and just bordering on the uncomfortably warm.

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  3. Three things:-
    1) How long did this journey take you?
    2) I have now added the roundabout in Cambridge to my list of NZ "must see" places.
    3) How come the sun wasn't shining? I had heard that the sun always shines in NZ summers.

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  4. I enjoyed the snapshots of your trip to Hamilton, especially the agricultural countryside and the one of the church in Cambridge.

    In NZ the sign says "Railway Crossing" but in the USA the sign says "Railroad Crossing." My dad used to have a little riddle:

    "Railroad Crossing - Look out for the cars" -- Can you spell that without any R's?

    And the answer, class, is: T-H-A-T

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  5. What an enjoyable trip to a different Hamilton than the one I live in (near, but only by a mile).

    hmmm, my word verification is 'geezers' - ???

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  6. Thank you for your itemised comments YP.
    1. I usually allow 90 minutes, but depending on the time of day (traffic) sometimes it's only 70 minutes door to door.
    Robert - I think that is the interest in 'everyday' images, it's the little differences between countries that we notice and enjoy. I remember thinking how the pavements (sidewalks) were different in the States to what I was used to.

    We had a family joke: "Antidisestablishmentarianism. Spell it!" (I-T)
    Which reminds me of a Hugh Laurie/ Rowan Atkinson exchange from the 'Blackadder' series.

    Violet - Glad you enjoyed it!

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