Hello from Hamilton :)

well we've moved yet again :) We may have posted from Thames, but we never did tell about our adventures there.
A little background information: Thames (pronounced like the river in England- Tems) is the gateway to the coromandel peninsula, a gold and silver mined area in the late 1800- early 1900s. It has since ceased in the interest of protecting the land and the people. At one time the coromandel peninsula had been completely logged for timber and the remainder burnt to clear for farmland. There is still a lot of clear grazing lands for sheep and cattle, but a few woods and protected forests are being planted and maintained. Its truly amazing the effort the kiwis have put in to reforesting these areas, and it is quite the area to see. Lush, green, and full of adventure.

While in Thames we stayed one night at a place called Dickson Holiday Park, let me tell you that that evening was no holiday. First it remained hot, muggy and inescapable. Second the mossies were vampires, biting and nibbling every inch of exposed and even the skin we thought to be covered. Third at about three o'clock in the morning we had a torrential down pour. Buckets of water and a river underneath us, with winds so strong we had thought our tent was going to leave us. Quite something to experience. Amazingly we did stay dry!  The next morning we caught a ride with Geoff, the owner, into town and booked a hostel instead. Geoff was great, the facilities were good too, just not the weather. That first night in Thames, we saw "Sherlock Holmes II" in what was quite possibly the smalledst theater we had been in since the Magic Lantern in Spruce Grove. This on was older though, that building had to be from the 20's! very quaint theatre, and very good movie.
Once we made ourselves at home in the hostel, our adventuring began. We started out heading to the "Driving Creek Potteries and Railway". A sole venture, taken on by one charismatic and eccentric potter. His whole goal in life was to have his own railway in order to move the clay from the mountain to his pottery, and kilns. This venture soon became his life's work, 30 years. Still alive today at the age of 73 he still walks up every step to the top, 400 plus steps up a very steep mountain. Where his masterpiece,called the Eyefull Tower, overlooks the Coromandel waterways. And to show it all off we rode a train up to the tower. Seeing every inch of track that was laid, and every tunnel made in order to arrive at the top. A true inspiration to hard work and perseverance.
The train was never intended to carry passengers, only clay, but as his infatuation with the small scale train carried him farther and farther up the mountain, his excess cash grew steadily less and less. Introduce some tourists and the only switchback train track and New Zealand and voila- income. BUT the proceeds that come from the train don't go back into his pocket, all the proceeds go to the upkeep of the railway, and to his sanctuary. He owns six islands in the bay- as well as the 300 hectares the railway sits on and has planted native trees of all kinds on these lands. All of which had been forested and burned in the past. he also has a native bird sanctuary on the land that has a predator proof fence surrounding it. This fence keeps out all the introduced mammals such as rats, mice, possums, rabbits, hedgehogs, stouts etc that damage local flora and fauna. As a result, within this sanctuary there are populations of native flightless birds that have otherwise disappeared from the peninsula and much of NZ. Overall, a pretty cool endeavor and very neat to see.

From the Railway and Pottery, we headed to a "theme park" called Waterworks. Let me tell you, you will not find anything like this in Canada! To those who don't appreciate innovation and tinkering, it might appear like just a bunch of random junk with hoses and bits that squirt water. But its a hell of a lot of fun.
So much fun that Miles is still sporting bruises (and rug burn) four days later! WE may have to let the photos and videos explain that one.

The next day we headed to Hot Water Beach and Cathedral Cove. We didn't realize it before we got to Thames, but Cathedral cove was one of the locations used as Narnia in the filming of "Prince Caspian" in the Chronicles of Narnia. its this amazing arch in the rock formed from millions of years of sea water wearing away the cliffs. The overall effect is amazing. you Hike in a good 2km of hot dusty trail and wind down a staircase and through some thick trees and step out onto a pristine beach with white sand and turquoise water and to your left is this immense arch that leads to yet more white sand beach and turquoise water. When you look out you can see these tree covered islands all through the bay and kayaks and small water craft dotting the water. It is amazingly beautiful. After splashing in the ocean for a bit, we headed to Hot water Beach.

At Hot Water Beach we tried our luck at finding an underground hot spring (that you have to dig for) in a 9km stretch of sand... Ok its not as difficult as that made it sound. we pretty much looked for the huge crowd of people, wriggled into the middle of it and started digging. Three holes full of cold water later we hit gold! In the form of steaming hot water filling our little mud hole. In fact a little too hot, we discovered that we had hit THE hot spot where the water comes out at approximately 65 degrees Celsius. We burned our toes, our fingers and our bums and decided that it might be a good idea to move to where we could get a bit of cold water from the ocean to balance out the heat. Success! Our very own spa.... ankle deep and cool enough to sit in without burning any important body parts, or unimportant ones for that matter! In the hole next to us there were a couple kiwi guys with a full cooler of beer and no opener, well we had the solution (good ole' Canadians with bottle openers on the bottom of their Jandals (sandals for you non kiwi speakers)) and thus we made fast friends. We traded a few good jokes for a couple of brews and had a damn good afternoon. I'm pretty sure we still have sand stuck to us in a few places.

The hostel we stayed at was Gateway Backpackers, if you are ever in Thames, you have got to stay there. The owner is great, he's a born kiwi raised in Australia and come back to retire. He makes you feel at home no matter what and will randomly throw BBQ's for the whole household. So our last night there we all came out to the back porch and enjoyed a BBQ and a LOT of Irish humor from a couple of the other guests. Now those are some funny people. If you get the humor. So we all chatted for a bit then a fellow traveller (Daniel) pulled out his guitar and started singing and playing some Irish folk songs. Greg (the owner) shared some stories about life here and in Australia and they all razzed me about a Teacher's hours and getting too much vacation time. Yup felt like being among friends at home. But don't worry, they are just temp friends.

WE then hoped a bus the next morning from Thames to Hamilton


Our adventures here so far have led us into the Hamilton Gardens for a quick photo shoot, and then back into a rental car headed about 45 mins out of town towards a little place called Raglan where we took in Bridal Veil Falls. A mesmerizing 180 foot waterfall took our breath away, while looking over the very top. There are a many vantage points from which to view the falls. An upper veiwing platform, midway point, and a view from the bottom bridge. Its not until you reach the bottom of the falls that you realize you have just descended a whopping 261 steps. It's lucky the falls were beautiful, or we might not of willingly taken the adventure. This fall is one of the highest in the southern hemisphere and it shows its stature when standing at the foot of this giant.

Which leads us to today. We would tell you the details but then they would have to kill us. Seriously, you should see the waiver. All we can say online is that we went to "Hobbiton" the film site of the "Shire" from the Lord of the Rings movies. It was pretty cool, but they were all "you can't post any details on blogs facebook etc etc etc. pretty much online is forbidden. Anyway its on this farm in Matamata district. Even driving in it starts to look like it belongs in Middle Earth. Rolling hills, green everywhere and sheep. lots of sheep.

Anyway, that is pretty much all we've done since we last wrote. Hope everything at home is good.

Cheers!
Miles and Brianna