Hamilton — Thames

The night before, I was still exploring the government gardens, which were very beautiful, and then at the riverside. There were loads of ducks and birds, and just stunning black swans with red beaks. They were so pretty. I didn't know they existed. In the morning, I woke up and first went to the i-site to snatch some Wi-Fi, as I had used it up a bit. I made some phone calls there. Since I was pretty frozen at 5 degrees, I got something warm to drink and intended to go to the redwoods, but ended up walking since the sun finally came out. After about an hour, I got there, and it was really cool. I didn’t do the treewalk for almost 50 NZD but went for a walk, actually two. The trees were indeed reddish and really numerous; I wandered around there for about 1-2 hours. Some of them are so thick you could build an entire house inside; I'm telling you. But what is really impressive is the height of the trees, up to 75 m (a 20-story building is about 65 m, so you can imagine). It's absolutely gigantic. You feel tiny in that forest. Afterward, I had to head back, and the kilometers really drained me, so I recharged at McDonald's. I wanted to drive to a spring but was too late for that. So, I drove to the camp for today, already headed towards Hamilton. It's right by the river, and I caught a sunset that was really beautiful. The next day was supposed to be an absolutely perfect day. It was forecasted to rain again, but the sun was shining. I mean, when I got up, it was 1 degree, but hey, sunshine! During the day, it was also quite nice. In the morning, I took a little detour to the Otorohanga Kiwi House. I spent a few dollars there, but it was worth it. Here, there are rooms where the day/night rhythm is flipped for the Kiwis. In the first room, unfortunately, I didn't see any. In the second room, I teamed up with an older couple, and together we discovered 2 Kiwis. They are actually bigger than you think, much bigger than my head. You always see them stuffed here, but I underestimated that. That wasn’t all. There was also an entire bird park with all kinds of New Zealand birds, and there were also lizards and ducks. So that was really cute. At the end, there was a bird like a parrot that chattered weirdly; I could have listened to it forever. Well, there was a lot to do, so I continued to the Hamilton Gardens. Here, I was so happy that parking was free, only to have another 20 dollars taken from me for admission. I must have stumbled into an exhibition since normally that costs nothing. I was a bit annoyed at first; I didn’t want that, but then, wow, people. I love this kind of stuff, but this was really something special; there were always squares that were great to look at, and paths leading to the different gardens. There were many themes, like the Italian Renaissance, Egypt, Mozart, gardens focused on cultivation, etc., so everything, Chinese, Japanese. It was a dream; I could have stayed there all day. But I continued to the Hamilton New Zealand Temple, which is actually just a church, if I understood correctly, but it looks really cool and is situated a bit higher, so there was a great view. Then I went back into nature for a walk at the Taitua Arboretum. There was a walk through the woods with free-range chickens, cows, and ducks; it was also really beautiful and peaceful. Now for the highlight today perhaps, I went to Cornerstone Alpacas Ltd.. There, you take a walk and feed the alpacas. They charged me another 20 dollars for that, which I didn’t know. It was still worth it; they were so cute, but they were so greedy for food it was crazy. I was also afraid I would get spat on at any moment because they kept making noises as if they were about to start. After I somewhat fairly distributed my feed bag, I made stops to relieve myself and refill with fresh water for shopping, and then to the giant L&P bottle in Paeroa. That's an iconic New Zealand soft drink that tastes fabulous. So lastly, I headed to Thames, where I just set up my campsite and treated myself to pesto pasta as a reward for the day. Tomorrow, I plan to have a library day, and then explore Coromandel and the surrounding areas for the next few days.