Hamilton

Jun 1
3 min read

May 27, 2026 - Arrive in Hamilton for the night.

Not much to report for this blog, other than our journey to the West Coast to Hamilton. We stayed here one night to break up the longer journey to Auckland. Because I insisted we see the Natural Bridge, we missed out on the Hamilton formal gardens - the main thing to see there. I'm not sure it is important enough a landmark to make a trip for next time, but we'll see.

Stop 1: Elephant Rock and Three Sisters. You can only access this during low tide. Our timing was right, but we hadn't expected the mile walk through the mud and bugs (see below) to actually see the sea stacks. We gave it a miss, but if you're on FB here's a link to see it: https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1Cp4k7jBMt/?mibextid=wwXIfr. We were able to get this shot of the elephant from the car.

Just as I thought I was done with sandfly bites, I was the proud owner of 6 more as a result of this 15 minute stop....

Stop 2: River Run Cafe trying a white bait fritter. White bait is native to the region and is also available in the UK. We didn't envision a white bait omelet which sounds disgusting, but tasted good. Would I order it again? no....

Chris managed to get a coffee mustache

Buni decided to try his "hand" at driving as we passed 200,000 km on the car odometer.

Route 3 finally was open the entire way, which shaved off countless hours (an unpaved roads). We were able to get a photo of one of the bad land slips that closed the road for about 6 weeks.

Stop 3: Fat Pigeon Cafe in Piopio - not worth the time...

This place is recommended as a half way place for coffee/snack. I wouldn't go back. I keep forgetting to tell people to put the dressing on the side, so, not only was my salad smothered with dressing, the half avocado had the skin on which was a surprise when I cut into it. On top of that, not sure kimchee belonged in the mix either....Chris had a BLT. We saw a praying mantis, possibly the best part of the meal.

We found out there are free range animals along the winding road that has blind curves. They don't really like to move.

Stops 4 and 5: Mangapohue Natural Bridge and Marokopa Falls. Lovely stops about 5 minutes apart. The Mangapohue Natural Bridge is a 17-meter-high limestone arch spanning the Mangapohue Stream. It is the partially collapsed remnant of an ancient cave system dissolved by the stream. You can see the remnants of stalactites and stalagmites. It looks like dinosaurs could come by at any minute.

Interesting limestone formations were visible from the roadway.

Marokopa Falls are a spectacular, 35-meter-high block waterfall. I had to look up block waterfall - where a wide, continuous sheet or stream of water drops vertically over a broad ledge or cliff.