Goodbye Hamilton

Today is our last day for our housesit and we have enjoyed looking after the little farm, moving the cattle and sheep daily, having many cuddles with the little dogs and finally getting the cats to tolerate a pat or two! 

Tomorrow, we head off to the town of Thames on the Coromandel Peninsula. Our lovely homeowners here have offered us the use of their holiday home for the two weeks before we head home.

Unfortunately, there is no internet connection at the house, so I will have to rely on internet cafes and/or free library wifi to keep blogging.

This is where we will be located and I have been told by many people that it's a beautiful part of New Zealand and there is lots to see and do there. I am sure we will enjoy it!

                             

Hamilton Gardens

If you visit Hamilton, you must go to the gardens, even if you aren't a gardening fan (like me). The gardens run beside the Waikato River and even though we walked around for 2 hours, we didn't see everything. There are the usual Rose, Camellia and Rhododendron Gardens that most big gardens have but what I enjoyed the most were the secret gardens. 

You walk into a central courtyard with five or six paths leading off in all different directions to places such as the Japanese Garden of Contemplation, Chinese Scholar's Garden, Indian Char Bagh Garden, Tudor Garden and Italian Renaissance Garden and about eight others! You never quite know what to expect as you follow along a pathway, go around a few bends and.....surprise!

                            

                            

                            

Of course, there were the more traditional gardens such as the Te Parapara Maori Garden which features an example of a pataka storehouse. Growing inside the fence were kumara plants which are planted into mounds to improve drainage.

                           

Who could resist this face!

                          

                           

A Visit to Raglan

We decided to head to Raglan today, a small beachside town on Raglan Harbour about 50 km west of Hamilton. It's a quaint little town and seems very popular with the backpackers and people who like to surf (are they still called surfies, as we called them in the 60s?) On the road to Raglan, we took a detour to see the Bridal Veil Falls. Quite spectacular, about a 55 metre drop.

                                             

Raglan also has a converted silo on the wharf which is now holiday apartments, certainly a different place to stay.

                          

The Raglan Harbour was quite pretty with quite a few people fishing from the wharf. We had a nice lunch there and of course we had seafood!

                          

                                             

Cattle and Sheep

Our housesit is going good, the area is lovely that we are living in and the weather is quite mild at the moment.

Apart from the domestic animals in our care we are also looking after some cattle and sheep. 

So far, they all seem easy to care for. This year we have some bulls, we have never had to look after bulls before, so we are a little wary of them and watch them carefully. 

                                      

This young heifer is a cutie!

                        

And the sheep (newly shorn).

                       

Here in New Zealand we are just entering into Autumn (Fall in the Northern Hemisphere) but at the moment it is still quite warm. We have been staying close to home for a few days so the animals get used to us but will venture further away to explore soon.

    

Housesitting Again

We have now started our housesit just outside Hamilton. We are on a small lifestyle block (hobby farm) with some cattle and sheep. Very similar to our housesit last year but sheep this year instead of alpacas. Really enjoying the time with our homeowners to learn about the property, such a lovely couple and even though this is the first time we have met, it seems like we have known each other forever.

Also in our care are 2 little dogs, 2 cats and about 40 goldfish. The dogs are real little cuties and love a cuddle but the cats are very wary of us at this stage. Hopefully, that may change! 

                          

                          

                          

Auckland New Zealand

We left Brisbane on an early morning flight yesterday, hoping we would arrive in Auckland ahead of Cyclone Pam which had earlier devastated the usually peaceful islands of Vanuatu. Such a beautiful country and wonderful people, my heart goes out to them.

We had plenty of rain and wind last night and woke to a slightly wet morning which has turned into a warm sunny afternoon. The cyclone has gone further south.

We headed for the Auckland Art Gallery this morning to get out of the rain, what a lovely gallery it turned out to be and we spent several hours wandering around it.

                         

I found this lovely looking circular stairwell.

                         

After the gallery we headed for the waterfront.

                         

Tomorrow, we head south on a bus to Hamilton where we will be met by our homeowners to start our housesit.

Brisbane Greeters

I have mentioned before in my blog that I am a volunteer Brisbane Greeter which is part of the Global Greeter network offering 'greets' in almost 100 cities around the world. Greeters are volunteers who are happy to take visitors and locals on a walking tour around the city, not like a professional tour guide, but more like a newly met friend! 
This past week has been a busy week for me as I have completed 4 walks in 7 days. Usually, I might only do one or two greets per month.

My husband Rob (also a Greeter) and I were asked to train other Greeters in walks around South Bank, so I did two training walks. This is the first group of Brisbane Greeters in front of the lovely Nepalese Pagoda.

                                                    

I then had my usual rostered greet with a couple from Malaysia and also a Brazilian man who is currently living in New Zealand. Here are my visitors at our inner city beach South Bank.

                             

Then today Rob and I were asked to show a group of interstate travel agents around, here he is telling them about our Anzac Square.

                            

Usually, I would walk anywhere between 13 to 22 kilometres each greet but today it was about 19 km. It is a good way to keep fit! We were then invited to have a scrumptious lunch with the group after our walk. Then they were off to visit a local winery, where hopefully the afternoon will be at a slower pace for them.

Rob and I are off to New Zealand next week where we have another housesit to do. On the North Island again but in a different place to last years. Sadly, no alpacas this time!