Straight after work today I checked out on a map how far away “Hamilton Gardens” were from my hotel. I’ve wanted to go there for years but I’ve thought they would be closed by the time I got there and I’m only ever in Hamilton for work during the week. So today I figured I could at least walk there and see what I could see, surely I would be able to look over a fence or something and it would be a nice walk there and back.

Google Maps told me it was about 30 minutes walk away – absolutely perfect. Once there I discovered it didn’t have a fence… I could walk through the gardens for as long as I wanted to, so I did. It was beautiful and they have an area called Fantasy Gardens with themed areas from various countries such as Italy, China, India and JAPAN!!! As I turned a corner and stepped into the Japanese Garden it was just like being back in Japan – it was fantastic, I loved it. I spent quite a while there before heading back to the hotel hoping it wouldn’t get dark before I got back.

I did manage to get back just as it turned dark thank goodness but I was really pushing it towards the end. I decided to return via the enticingly named “Riverside Walk to the city”. Very near the end of the riverside walk it did start getting a bit dark and with all the trees around and park like surroundings I was suddenly aware that this would be the perfect place to get mugged and my legs were so tired from all the walking I’ve done over the last two days I just didn’t think I’d be able to run very fast to escape a would-be attacker. Luckily I only encountered friendly people walking dogs and a couple of lady joggers.

Turns out (according to my iPhone) I walked 7.59 kilometres and the whole walk took 1 hour and 38 minutes. I walked an average speed of 13:02 minutes per kilometre and burnt off 519 calories – excellent. You can check it out here: “RunKeeper”

Today I headed into the main street of Hamilton to look for somewhere simple to have lunch – something like a sandwich or a salad etc. But this was much harder than I imagined. I walked into about four different places all with really flash food and nothing basic or simple. Finally I gave up as I couldn’t be late back to work so in desperation I went into the next one determined to get whatever was available. The really lovely waitress said in a welcoming voice please take a seat and I’ll be over in a second to take your order.

So I sat down, checked out the menu found something simple (a bacon bagel) and ordered a Mocachino as well. Shortly my coffee arrived BUT in a glass – this is NOT good. I have a really low pain threshold, much lower than the average human being and just can’t pick up a hot glass of coffee no matter how badly I want to. Why does coffee have to be served in a glass anyway???

I tried drinking it by not holding it and felt silly knowing people were watching but I didn’t care I was trying to make a point. When the waitress returned with my lunch order I asked if I could please have my coffee in a cup, as it was a bit hot for me to hold. She was very lovely about this and said no problem, would it be alright if I just tip this one into a cup for you – I said sure (thinking about getting back to work soon).

In less than a minute she returned with exactly what I asked for – my coffee in a cup. BUT it was a TEA CUP!!! A cup with a handle soooooo tiny I couldn’t even get my little finger to fit through the hole (see photo above). The teacup was so small all of my coffee did not fit and spilled over into the saucer, she apologised for the mess and said she’d have to remember the size issue for next time!

Actually the whole lunch time thing was so random I had to laugh.
But my point is… surely; if they are going to serve coffee in a glass shouldn’t they ask if you would prefer it in a glass or a cup – this is New Zealand after all. I really don’t want to start placing an order for coffee like this: “Could I please have a coffee in a cup… thank you!”

I’m down in Hamilton for a week of work and the weather is perfect. This means I can go for big walks straight after work and now that Daylight Savings has started it’s not dark till much later allowing for really big walks.

So I set off in some random direction I’d never been before away from the familiar river with the intention of just walking wherever for 30 minutes and then turning around and heading back – giving me a decent one hour walk. After about 10 minutes I wondered where I was and remembered I could check out Google maps on my phone and hopefully it would tell me exactly where I was and what (if anything) would be nearby.

On the map I noticed a big blob of blue to my left (the river however was on my right) so that got me curious and I walked up a hill which I wouldn’t normally have walked up to discover much to my delight a huge lake!!! I had no idea there was such a pretty lake in Hamilton and wondered if it was called Lake Hamilton. According to Google Maps it wasn’t Lake Hamilton – it was Lake Rotorua. A tad confusing considering I was nowhere near Rotorua, so I stopped walking long enough to squint for a better look at the map and saw it was actually Lake Rotoroa – with an O not a U. Oh… ok cool.

On the way back I got to walk right past a large water tower that I have thought for many years I’d love to get a closer look at and the whole walk was much longer than an hour. Anyway it was a great walk and one I wouldn’t have managed to do if I didn’t bother to check out Google Maps on my phone – so thank you iPhone.

Today at lunch time Senior Fluffy and I had a quick look at the Weta Cave store in Sky City.  For the next three months, Sky City is hosting a special Weta Cave retail store.  It’s a little bit like the one in Wellington with full scale displays of Avatar and Lord of the Rings characters plus you can buy official merchandise from some of the movies such as The Lord of the Rings, Avatar, District 9 and The Adventures of Tintin.

Cup Fever has well and truly begun.  Senior Fluffy and I went down to Queen St at lunch time to check out the official Rugby World Cup store.  It’s quite cool, you can buy rugby jerseys for all the teams, scarves, caps, hats, tee shirts, socks, $90 neck ties, calendars, diaries, towels, flags, post cards, leather wallets, shot glasses, whiskey glasses, golf balls, pens and even dog leashes.

We were in there a couple of weeks ago and we were the only ones at that time, but today the store was quite busy with customers all spending up large keeping all the staff very busy (I counted about 10 staff, which is a lot for a store that size).  But the World Cup doesn’t start for a couple more weeks, so imagine what it will be like once it has started – best get your merchandise now I guess.

I was very tempted to buy something, but then I thought… why!!!  I don’t even like rugby and won’t be watching any of the games, so that really would be a waste of money.  BUT if I did buy something it certainly wouldn’t have an Adidas logo anywhere on it.