Hamilton Gardens

On a 50-hectare site that rolls gently along the northern banks of the mighty Waikato River sits the magnificent Hamilton Gardens.

The site used to be a sand pit and the city dump but over the past 30 years, it has been developed, both through the support of the city’s ratepayers and through the back-breaking efforts of local volunteers, to become one of Hamilton’s most important assets.

According to the Hamilton City Council, it costs about $3 million dollars per year, which equates to around $20 per resident but that cost is more than offset by the $22 million it generates in economic activity through the 800,000 people who visit each year and the 570 significant events held there.

Some of its more well-known attractions – like the world-class Rogers Rose Gardens – are obviously not at their best in the middle of winter but the gardens are still a stunning place to walk the dog and the kids, breathe in the cold but fresh Waikato air, and soak in some inspiration for what to plant in your own quarter-acre piece of paradise.

There’s a superb collection of themed gardens – from a Chinese Scholars Garden, with sculptures of turtles and lions, to an Italian Renaissance Garden, filled with tubs of fruiting orange trees; an example of a sustainable backyard from which you can eat produce all year round; as well as examples of gardens down the ages and from around the world – a Victorian Flower Garden that is looking a bit sad in this season and a splendid example of an Indian Char Bagh Garden. 

But enough from me … I’ll let my photos do the talking.

Honey, I’m home!

Home is where the heart is, they say. Well, New Zealand certainly holds three things very close to my heart: most of my family, my best friends and delicious food.

One of the best things about returning to New Zealand is being able to see the people I feel closest to, my extended family and my women friends. This year I timed my visit particularly well and was able to enjoy my first family Christmas since my mum died in April 2008. I like to think of the aunt and uncle I stayed with in Hamilton as my surrogate parents. Because they’ve known me all my life and they know my history, I can relax with them, be myself. They are helpful and supportive, and they always make me feel so very welcome.

Christmas dinner with the whanau

I also got to catch up with those of their kids and grandkids – my cousins and second cousins – who still live in Hamilton, and said hello to another, who now lives in Australia, via Skype. My aunt and uncle held a dinner party for some people they know who were also close to my family – my dad’s cousin and his wife, and a good golfing buddy of my mum’s and her husband. And my uncle drove us all the way to Whangamata, a beachside town on the Coromandel peninsula about an-hour-and-a-half’s drive from Hamilton, so I could catch up with another elderly auntie.

I also enjoyed a lovely dinner and catch up with relations from my dad’s side of the family: an elderly aunt who is the sole survivor from my dad’s siblings and in-laws, and her children – my cousins – and some of their children. That was fun too.

Though a couple live in faraway lands, the majority of my close women friends live in Auckland. I was blessed to stay once again with dearest Rosie and her son Stephen and cat Fluffy in their house in Titirangi, a suburb of bush, birds and beaches. Another good buddy, Sue, lives nearby, so the three of us shared dinners and lunches out, went shopping together and saw a few movies – The Hobbit, Skyfall and Quartet. I had a lovely long lunch, with those magnificent publishing women I used to work with at Auckland University Press, and heard about their latest doings and the hot gossip, and we shared a lot of laughs. I also long-lunched with Jo, my oldest friend – we worked together at Air New Zealand many eons ago – and caught up with her news of family, job, etc. I spent the night at the house of friends Carol and John – Carol and I taught English in the same language school – and we ate a yummy meal, drank lots of wine, and chatted till the wee hours. And I lunched with Cathy, another former teacher at that same school. She had visited me in Peru so it was great to catch up with her again.

I value having all these wonderful people in my life and it’s so good to be able to come back to New Zealand and pick up again as if our last conversation was just the day before.

Fresh flounder straight off the barbeque

And, last but by no means least, food! One of the great things about New Zealand is being able to eat a huge variety of fresh, delicious food … with confidence. And, by that I mean, without worrying about what nasty bugs and beasties you’re going to catch from the unwashed or washed-in-bad-water vegetables and fruit in your meals. Of course, you can contract stomach-churning diarrhoea-inducing bugs from any restaurant in any country but the chances of that happening are just so much higher in under-developed countries.

I also love the variety of food available in restaurants and supermarkets. I ate Italian, Turkish, Greek, Thai and good old Kiwi fare, and enjoyed every single mouthful. Christmas dinner was that traditional Kiwi staple of roast lamb with mint sauce, plus the English traditional roast turkey, as well as delicious ham on the bone, and all the trimmings. Divine! And then there’s the seafood – my favourite, and the one thing I missed in land-locked Cusco. Ah, the seafood … I’ll say no more as my mouth is watering at the very thought of it!

Thanks, New Zealand and my fellow Kiwis. It was another truly wonderful visit home.

New Zealand holiday: week two

So, week two of my trip back to New Zealand, and I'm definitely seeing the place with fresh eyes - maybe because I've been away for 11 months, though I've been away for longer before, or maybe because I've been doing so much photography this year that I've learnt to see more clearly, and look up and down and in every other direction. Here is what I saw during my second week ...

366/98 April 07, 2012

This was taken when my friend Rosie and I went for a long walk around the beaches of the Manukau harbour, There was no one else around so it was wonderfully peaceful and great for fossicking along the tide line and checking out the rockpools for little sea creatures.

I love this image! It was not staged or manipulated in any way - except for a little cropping, this is SOOC (straight out of camera). A sea snail has formed the perfect question mark ... but what is the question?

366/99 April 08, 2012

This is one of New Zealand's iconic symbols - a fern frond.

366/100 April 09, 2012

I've just been staying in Hamilton for a few days with an aunt and uncle (I managed to catch up with 18 relations in 3 days - pretty good going, I think, and so lovely to see them all), and one morning we went out for a long walk along the banks of the Waikato River. It was a beautiful clear day and there were lots of ducks scattered along the river bank. These two were still slumbering.

366/101 April 10, 2012

A sign that winter is coming here in New Zealand - the crab apples are ripening. I love their bright red colour!

366/102 April 11, 2012

Today I had a short drive around my home town of Ngaruawahia (and I challenge you to pronounce that name correctly!). Ngaruawahia is the home of the Maori king and this is one of the carved wooden gateways into his marae (sacred tribal meeting place).

366/103 April 12, 2012

Considering what a lousy wet summer everyone's been complaining about here in New Zealand, I've been really lucky to have enjoyed hot sunny weather during my holiday so far - or, at least, I was until late yesterday and most of today, when it has rained rather a lot. Still, the rain brings its own delights ... like these reflections on the deck here at my friend's house

366/104 April 13, 2012

Auckland architecture, old and new. When I posted this on google+, someone commented that it was like Inception, and the photo got more hits than almost any other photo I've posted. It's the glass wall at the back of Britomart train station in central Auckland.