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Hamilton Gardens: a huge garden area divided into small theme gardens. Starting with a japanese garden, we went through the classic garden typs from different cultures and eras. Followed by some more practical gardens like a herb garden or a kitchen garden. The last gardens were more fantasy like, with surrealism, egyptian, tudor and a tropical garden in a non tropical region. The best thing, I went in for free. But even for 20 NZ dollar (10 €) it's so worth it.

Hot Water Beach Kawhia: A beautiful black sand beach with a hot spring right underneath. We went close to the water edge where the steam was coming from and startet to dig a hole. Warm water was coming from below and after a while the hole was big enough to lay in it. At some spots it was really hot. In between we jumped into the cold tasman sea and then back into the hot tub. After a while I built a tower and a big wall for protection against the rising tide. Though it took quit a long time for the first wave to rouch the outer wall. In the end I only saw the first wall breached, but we wanted to continue, because we still had a long way to drive.

Timber Trail / Ongarue Spiral: a part of the Te Araroa, I did 2 years ago, where you can see thousands of glowworms for free. Only a bit of walking is necessary and best at night. We parked as close as possible 2,5 km away and had to go through a closed gate, which is quite easy. On the way up to the spiral we still had daylight, but once we got there it was already really dark and the high walls before the tunnel were already shining with hundreds of glowworms. Entering the tunnel it looked like a clear night sky. It's not easy to take a picture with the phone cameras, but the athmosphere is mystical. On the whole way back I saw blue lights in the steep mountain side like eyes watching us.Read more