A Garden Of One Sort Or Another

March 14-15

Another quick 8km run to start the day. As I walked down the drive of our accommodation, the mare and foal in the paddock alongside ambled up to say hello and accept a lengthy pat and ear scratch. That was an added bonus to start the day.

It was the last day trip from our base in Cambridge and it was time to head out to Matamata to visit Hobbiton. This was high on Lou’s New Zealand wish list, so we motored out to Middle Earth, which was a nice drive through rolling hills and past green paddocks, and we landed in Matamata to have a look at the town itself before heading to The Shire.

Matamata was really just a town that looked like any other town, but the Information Centre had been designed to make the most of the area’s Tolkien movie fame. After a quick roam around the town, the rain well and truly came down, giving us our first dodgy weather day of the trip. A bit of rain is no deterrence though and we choofed over the hills and out to The Shire for a visit to Hobbiton. 

We spent two and a half hours being guided around The Shire, looking at the Hobbit houses and they have now created two that can be visited inside, to walk through. These little homes are, of course, the perfect size for me, being somewhat Hobbit sized myself!

Apart from this having been a film location, the star is really just the location itself, with lovely views over the green hills. The rain eventually eased, it was “brightening” and it was an enjoyable stroll along the paths, through a very scenic part of the world. It turned out that one of our guides, who was British, had spent many years guiding in Australia and had also been to Tasmania, including the teeny tiny little place in Tassie where Steve and I live. That was a first, to meet someone who had not only heard of our little spot, but had actually been there. Amazing.

It was an easy day, with a gentle stroll and a drive that wasn’t too long, so a nice way to round out our stay before we head back towards Auckland tomorrow, ready for our journey home. We have one more day though, as we make our way back, so we’ll try and fill it with some more experiences and discoveries on this small island that we’ve embraced wholeheartedly. 

I’d like to say Friday dawned all sparkling and shiny for our final day, but noooooo! It absolutely chucked it down all night. The rain hammered and it was looking like we’d have something of a damper put on our last day, quite literally. We packed up and motored out of our lovely rural accommodation and set course for Hamilton Gardens, hoping that, with lovely, learned British optimism, there may be “fair weather clouds bubbling up” and it may soon be “brightening”. Sure enough, by the time we reached the gardens, the rain had eased to a drizzle and eventually stopped and just left us with grey skies, but at least it was dry for our roam around some very interesting gardens.

The layout of Hamilton Gardens is really interesting. We wandered through, looking at our map to find our way, because each garden is set up like a separate “room” with a different theme. The paths track along and some merge into circular hubs, that then have multiple paths going off them, into different themed gardens. There was the Tudor Garden, Modernist Garden, Surrealist Garden, Herb Garden, Egyptian Garden and so on. Each one was so well tended, with information plates and with some different and really interesting and quirky approaches to design. The Surrealist Garden used the style of Surrealist artists that played with size, scale and perspective and the Italian Renaissance Garden had references to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. All very nice and a lovely way to spend some hours strolling around as a final hurrah to our New Zealand adventure.

After the peace and tranquillity of the garden, it was time to hit the road and make our way back towards Auckland, where we’d be staying the night in the charm of an airport hotel, ready for our morning departure back to Oz. The drive was one that required a robust blend of concentration, bravery and patience as we motored along expressways, highways and roads here and there. What I’ve found most confusing about driving here is the speed limits and signs, or lack thereof. Where’s a speed limit sign when you need one? Nowhere to be seen and the speed limits are very different to home, so I was never sure what speed I should be driving. Highways could have a speed limit of 60km/h, but then you turn off that highway onto another one and there’s no sign. Do I keep doing 60km/h? Is this one 80? Or 70? Who knows! Then there were the speed signs, right before an intersection or roundabout, but then nothing after. There I was tootling along at 60km/h, then there was a sign saying 100km/h (and those were rare), so I sped up, only to have a roundabout appear 50 metres on. Braaaaake!! Why tell me to do 100km/h right before a roundabout??!! That happened before intersections too, a speed limit, then after the intersection, turn right and no speed sign? Do I do the speed it said before I turned? I don’t know!! Then we were going through a town with a speed limit of 50km/h (which was the case in most towns), so there I am leaving the town at 50km/h and there’s an overtaking lane, with the speed still 50! What speed do they think I’d be doing, for someone to want to pass and still keep to the 50km/h limit? Then right after the 50km/h overtaking lane ended, the speed changed to 80km/h. Here endeth the confused rant, but it did do my head in as a foreign driver trying to work out the speed limit system. 

We motored on, with Euphemia the Google Maps voice giving me directions, which were very welcome particularly when we hit the four lanes of traffic with a side order of road works to navigate amongst the feral traffic around an airport. But, we made it back to the car rental return, left our set of wheels behind, found our hotel and I sat down for a restorative brew to regain some zen after the high stakes, high blood pressure traffic experience.

So, there ends our New Zealand adventure by road, rail, run and roam. A top little trip it’s been too, with the places we saw and the people we came across all being top notch. We leave with a smile on our dials and nothing but warm hearted impressions of our Kiwi cousins and their “land of the long white cloud.” Our own little island of Tassie beckons though and time again to put on my brave pants, board that flying tin can and hope it goes up and down when it’s supposed to and not before, to deposit us back on Tassie soil. I think I can safely say I shall return though. I did pick up a guide to the New Zealand cycling network of rail trails, so I’ll be hoping that Steve and I may return again to return to our two wheels and see some more of NZ by pedal power. Sounds like a plan to me! Watch this space!