I've had a great week hanging out in the Waikato region of the North Island! And tomorrow, I am off to Raglan to check out the surfing conditions and get myself up and out on a board! I'm totally pumped dude!! ;-)
I hitch hiked with a guy that I met (Nicholas from France!) for nearly all of the 7 and a half hour trip from Paihia down to Hamilton. The hitching went without a hitch – we got super lucky to be picked up in Whangarei (about 2 hours south of Paihia) by a guy who was driving right to Hamilton! He was a super sweetheart and even dropped me off right at my friend Paul's doorstep – which was a HUGE relief considering the downpour that Hamilton was getting at 8:30pm Wednesday evening... Hamilton, is a nice, fairly large inland city but it has a difficult time keeping up with the “ooos and ahhhs” of the coastal and mountainous parts of the country. It boasts an excellent nightlife, is famous for it's hot air balloons, and is home to the University of Waikato. All of which I got to experience in person!!
I had met a guy, Paul (originally from Ohio but lived in Idaho completing his undergraduate degree) when I was in Paihia. He had mentioned that he had a flat in Hamilton, so when I decided to leave Paihia and head south to Rotorua, I discovered that I would go straight through Hamilton. Needless to say, I sent out an unofficial couchsurfing message to Paul and decided to make a stop in Hamilton before heading farther south. In retrospect, it was an excellent decision :-)
Paul was a fabulous tour guide, showing me all the hotspots of Hamilton. One of my favorites being a cafe where we proceeded to attempt to order NZ's version of the “All American Breakfast.” Our order consisted of French Toast and bacon (Meal #1), Big Breakfast (sausage, bacon, 2 eggs, toast,tomato) (Meal #2), and The Spinach Omelette (Meal #3). Oh, and two chai latte's please! How obvious do you think we made it that we were Americans??
We also walked around the Uni of Waikato campus. It was fun to see all the students milling about with their backpacks and books and espressos. Makes me start to miss the university life...but only a little ;-) Not nearly ready to go back quite yet!
I got a chance to meet some of Paul's friends when we went out for appetizers and drinks on Friday night. He had met Dan through couchsurfing and via Dan met Ra, and Glenn as well. Since Paul was flying out the next morning, this was the farewell party. To make it even more special, there was a parade in his honour! Well, the fact that it was the weekend of the Waikatoo Hot Air Balloon festival might have had something to do with it... But it was still cool to see all the kids with balloon animals and watch gas ignited flames shooting out the top of the hot air balloon baskets floats. It was quite the celebration! The rest of the night was loads of fun – we went to bar where they had several pool tables AND a sweet live band WITH a dance floor! Add a foosball table and I would have been completely and utterly in my nightlife element :-)
Saturday was the big Waikato Hot Air Balloon festival! I found out that Hamilton has really good weather conditions for flying HABs so the city kind of made it their “thing.” Which is awesome, because the festival only happens once a year, and I just happened to be in Hamilton at exactly the right time! I met up with Dan and Marea who I had met the night before. We met up with a larger group at the festival grounds and had just an awesome evening. A delicious picnic, a HAB light show, and, at the very end, fireworks!! It felt just like the Fourth of July at Carson Park – plus a couple thousand persons. I loved it!
After Paul left, I was invited to stay at Ra's house, one of the women I had met on Friday. She lives about 30 minutes south of Hamilton near a town called Te Awamutu. Yesterday, I decided to make it my mission to find my way to Hamilton and bike all the way back to Te Awamutu (oh yeah, Paul had bought a bike and ended up giving it to me – but, it had been left at his place in Hamilton, so decided it would be a fun adventure to go pick it up!) I ended up hitch hiking to Hamilton with this really awesome Austria traveler, Chris. He even went out of his way to bring me right to Paul's flat. Man the people here are awesome.
The bike ride back to Te Awamutu was highly successful. But not for lack of a sore bum...35 km on a not-so-cushy bike seat made for an interesting ride. But, I never once got lost, which was awesome considering my iffy directions...
Today, I biked into Te Awamutu and spent the afternoon at the Rose Garden – taking lots of close-up flower photos and breathing in the magnificent smell of rose petals. The weather has been perfect since Friday...not too hot and always sunny. It was a lovely day :-)
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