Day's Park Hamilton

While back in Hamilton last week, we went to visit Lucy's happy place—Day's Park. Hamilton has a number of dog parks where you can exercise your dog off lead. Our favourite would have to be Day's Park. When living in Hamilton, this was the one we would drive to every day, and Lucy soon knew what the word "park" meant—the reaction was the same as for "walk". This trip, as soon as we turned into River Road, she started to get excited. She'd remembered the way.

The main car park is small, often overflowing to where people park on the grass next door. But that's only suitable for those vehicles that can safely drive over the curb.

Our second choice of access (although you could also park on the side of River Road) is down at the end of Arran Road. This is the entrance.

Day's Park is a well-maintained area, right next to the Waikato River. There is a wide, loop walkway around the park or, if you prefer, you can just walk across the field.

Looking up towards the main car park you can see this part of the path is paved.

As you come down from the main car park, there is a huge rock where the path diverges.

And on the rock a plaque acknowledging Eric Day's gift to the people of Hamilton—this magnificent area.

There are a variety of different, beautiful trees.

Many of the trees have seats under them where you can rest for a while.

Day's Park attracts dogs of every size and type—mostly bigger ones today.

There is a walkway down to the river, where you will often see dogs swimming, retrieving sticks, etc.

The river is a popular place for rowing practice and most days, if you wait long enough, you'll see some pass by.

There are also a couple of picnic tables at the top not far from the main car park.

Walking around the park, there are a number of places where you can see or access the water.

Lucy heading back up the path towards the car parked on Arran Road . . . .

If you cannot see "Post a Comment" box below, click here . . .

Horahora Domain

We only stayed at Horahora Domain one night—hence why we did not even unhitch. But it's such a beautiful spot—and free! Another one to add to the "I'll be back" list!

Horahora Domain is just off State Highway 1, right beside Lake Karapiro. About 18kms from Cambridge (towards Hamilton), turn off onto Maungataurari Road. Horahora Domain is situated about 2km down this road on your left.

There's plenty of space for campers of any size, and it's a great place for a picnic. There's a boat ramp and it's a popular spot for water sports. While we were there, there was a wakeboarder entertaining us.

There are public toilets and rubbish bins, but you must be certified self-contained to be able to stay overnight.

Although online it says no dogs allowed, the signs here say they are okay on leads. Lucy was told she was not allowed outside . . . see her poking her head out? She often sits on the top step with her feet down on the next step.

There were a couple of other campers there at the same time as us, but there was plenty of space.

As for the bird life, Mr & Mrs Swan kept their babies at quite a distance, so it was a challenge to get sharp photos of them. They had four young ones (cygnets)—more than just these two—but they were quite spread out. So I settled for a shot of just a couple of them with their parents.

Then, just before the light disappeared, this white-faced heron arrived.

Waihi Beach

We stayed at Waihi Beach RSA for two nights. The RSA is perched up on a hill and there was plenty of space for motorhomes of all shapes and sizes. Although not a beach view from our window, there is a view of the sea from inside the RSA.

We parked near the back fence on a large gravel area and had these interested neighbours.

Once we'd parked and unhitched, we went off to have a look around.

The beach appears to be suffering from erosion of the dunes and they've implemented a number of strategies in an attempt to combat this.

Sandbags . . .

Rocks . . .

Monitoring (you can see the dunes have receded from where this post was placed at the edge of them just eight years ago) . . .

Roped off areas . . .

. . . and lots of messages requesting people to stay off the dunes.

There are plenty of places you can gain access to the beach without walking over the dunes.

Waihi Beach sand dunes reminded me of my childhood holidays at Mt Maunganui, with dunes covered in tumbleweeds and pussy willows—lots of wonderful memories kicked in.

The beach had homes and baches (cribs, if you're a South Islander) close to the beach. Imagine the views they would have!

Mayor Island sits offshore.

We went for drive to Bowentown. In particular, we were looking for spots where we could park up if we were to return. There are a number of designated parking spots in small parking areas along the beach side of the road all the way to Bowentown, but nothing we could have fitted into. Fine for campervans, but not so for fifth wheelers or caravans. Unless we took up three or four spots—which could make us rather unpopular, so not an option.

When we reached the end of the peninsula, we found a prime spot. Grass, not painted lines! Space where we could actually fit, but it was pretty full up. This was Anzac Bay. The 'designated area' was on the grass, the far side of the tree. I imagine it would be very popular in the summer—it would be disappointing to drive all this way to find there was no room, but I guess "them's the breaks".

We'd driven up to a higher car park where there were some great views. Matakana Island . . .

. . . and some guys on jet skis having a great time.

We started to head back to the rig and pulled off to have a look around the Bowentown Boat Club.

That night, the golden sunset was brilliant. These were taken from near the back of our rig, looking away from the sea.