Hamilton has much to offer active relaxers. Photo / Getty Images
With so much to do for active relaxers, Eleanor Hughes makes the most of a long weekend in Hamilton: gallivanting from one attraction to the next in a campervan.
Hot air balloon ride booked. Twilight kayaking and cave walk booked. A long weekend in Hamilton planned. We arrive late at Hamilton City Holiday Park on Friday night. In a campervan, we’re in bed in no time for an early morning start.
Picnic lunches packed, we’re on our bikes by 8am headed to Hamilton Gardens, 4km away, and join the Te Awa River Ride to Cambridge. The 52km return takes us through quiet suburban streets then boardwalks and bush to emerge on to rural Riverglade Rd’s flat, concrete pathway to cycle past lifestyle blocks and paddocks. We pass busy Punnet Cafe, Tamahere’s Central Shopping Hub, then ride quiet roads where flat paddocks stretch forever.
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An undulating cycle path, 9km left to Cambridge, gives views of a tree-lined Waikato River reflecting blue sky, paddocks to our left. We pass Whakanui Stud, I read about Cambridge’s horse industry. Plums on trees planted next to the pathway, ripening late January, are free for the taking.
The path ends at the brick Gaslight Theatre, once the gasworks, that opened in 1907. Cycling up steep Alpha St we arrive, three hours after setting out, at Cambridge’s Victoria Square. The grand Edwardian Town Hall opposite has me envisaging top-hatted men and women in gowns emerging. We cycle left along Victoria Rd where Lake Te Koo Utu lies below road level. Opposite, 1873-built St Andrew’s Church is the town’s oldest building. Thornton Rd’s colonial villas and 1908 band rotunda are quaint. Passing Good Union, located in the 1898 Trinity Presbyterian Church, it’s tempting to stop for a Good George cider, but we’ve got a kayak trip …
Driving from Hamilton to Riverside Adventures on Horahora Rd takes 30 minutes and we’re soon in a double kayak on the Waikato River. The 5.2km journey takes us over the submerged Horahora power station. A ramp with rail lines leading to the power station descends into the water. We turn off up the river, where Māori once placed logs to reach the opposite bank, and paddle Pōkaiwhenua Stream. It narrows to about a kayak-length width hemmed by towering rock sides coated in dripping moss and ferns that reflect in the still water; the coos of wood pigeons echo. In dying light, we stop for a snack at a grassy, flat area. Then, enveloped in disorienting darkness, we paddle. An eye on the reflective tape on our guide’s paddle and trying to keep the slightly glowing sky above in line with the kayak, we avoid invisible gorge sides. Glow worms, star-like, surround. Clusters resemble distant city lights. Magical.
Back on the Waikato, the moon’s crescent reflects; rural homes have a friendly glow; a swan flaps its wings breaking the silence. Across the sky, the Milky Way spreads.
We drive to Hamilton Gardens for a more leisurely Sunday. I’m transported to Italy walking between Roman statues, fountains and grid-like, manicured gardens where orange trees flourish in terracotta pots. A white pavilion looks out over blue water channels surrounded by four colourful gardens in the Indian Char Bagh Garden. In the Ancient Egyptian Garden, turquoise pillars and pergolas are striking against a temple backdrop and central pool, cat statues standing below grapevines. Paths lead to the tranquil waters of a Japanese garden, a blooming, formal English garden with bricked pathways, fountains and ponds, and over bridges and below towering bamboo in the Chinese garden. I expect the Queen of Hearts to wield her croquet mallet in the Tudor Garden with its castle-like turret and mythical beasts perched on green-and-white striped poles. In the Surrealist Garden, giant doors and garden tools dwarf me; trees’ limbs move. Vegetable and herb gardens, tropical gardens … two hours disappear.
Lunching in the campervan, we then head to the Classics Museum and discover self-contained vehicles can park overnight.
Red-upholstered seating and black-and-white floor tiles are striking in the American-style Jukebox Diner from where we enter the museum. Inside, too, is a riot of colour … scarlet Texaco petrol pumps, Shell, Mobil and BP signage, bonnet emblems … and cars! Featuring over 100 from the early 1900s through to 1987, they gleam. There’s box-like Fiats, elongated Studebakers, Sunbeam and Triumph sports cars, a 1927 Ford T, rounded Buicks and Fords, motorbikes, sidecars, Vespas, and the one-seated, three-wheeled Bamby. Thoroughly enjoyable even though cars aren’t my thing.
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We have time to visit The TreeChurch at Ōhaupō. Open only on Sundays until 4pm, October to April, the church is delightful. Passing through wrought-iron gates flanked by ball-shaped trees, I enter, walking the wooden bench-lined grass aisle to a marble altar. Cut-leaved alder covers a steeply pitched wrought-iron roof. Wrought-iron window frames are surrounded by trees and red roses forming walls. Maple, ginkgo, poplar and other large trees spread in the surrounding 2.5ha gardens. I walk the circular contemplation path and an avenue of straight, white-barked Himalayan birch, find a waterlily-filled pond, flower gardens, and espalier forming a circle below a billowing roof.
It’s a 6.15am start next morning for a hot air balloon ride with Kiwi Balloon Company.
At Innes Common, I watch some of my co-passengers help unroll and spread out a deflated balloon. The mouth is held open, a flame burns into it. It takes 20 minutes until the nylon is nearly full, the attached basket uprighted. Slightly nervous, I climb in. Eight aboard, the flame roars. We gently ascend above Innes Common. Mist hangs over the lake; the blazing orange sun rises on the horizon and we drift towards Raglan, wind dictating our direction. Flame extinguished, peace ensues. We descend gradually drifting over homes, criss-crossing roads, cars Matchbox-sized. Lakes glisten mirror-like.
I gaze out to Mt Pirongia, and Mt Te Aroha, the white smear of Raglan Bar; Ruapehu is faint. The flame roaring again warms, but feet stay cold; we rise and pass over Hamilton’s outskirts to pastures. Far below cows moo, traffic noise is faint. Maize forms a brown rectangle on land that is green-hued, Waipā River weaves across. White wind turbines stand tall along the crest of a range; wisps of cloud lie below us. After a magical 1¼ hours, Mark, our pilot, spots a suitable paddock to land. We brace backs against the basket’s walls, hold on to opposite ropes and bend knees. Touchdown! Cows look quizzical.
About an hour’s drive from Hamilton, we cross a Waikaretu farm paddock and I squeeze, with trepidation, feet first through a narrow rock opening, into Nikau Cave. I crawl 3m, slightly panicking, through a shallow stream, cave roof just above my head. The passage widens slightly. We crawl on. Another 15m. Then, thankfully, I can stand. Headlamps light up stalactites and stalagmites. Some are encrusted, barnacle-like, others smooth. They’re dagger-shaped; knitting needle-thin; rounded; a few frilled, wavy like an oyster shell edge. Philip, farmer and guide, is entertaining as we wade up to knee-deep water. A scream heralds an eel sighting. Torches off, we stand in blackness. Eyes adjust, a glow worm galaxy twinkles. We emerge into bush an hour later.
The hour-loop Waikaretu Bush Walk, 500m up the road, leads to a waterfall. Water-grooved and fluted limestone boulders give picturesque scenery. So, too, do the green hills peppered with limestone boulders I overlook back at Nikau Cave Cafe, prolonging our departure from a wonderful Waikato weekend.
Hamilton’s Balloons over Waikato festival is March 18-22.
Early risers can spot balloons rising from Innes Common about 7am every morning, or see them glowing at the Zuru Nightglow event, with live entertainment on March 22 at Claudelands Oval. Hamilton City Holiday Park is within walking distance of Claudelands Oval.
No matter where you go in Australia this winter, there is lots to do.