20 March 2018 Tuesday
It has been drizzling the whole of last night. Fresh and wet greenery.
0800 hrs…. we headed to the Jetty for The Bay of Islands Tall Ship Sailing on R Tucker Thompson. To our disappointment, the sailing was cancelled due to expected bad weather.
All the while I thought I have been too aggressive to include the sailing into our itinerary because it is expected to end at 1630 hrs and I am fairly concern with the 5 hours 350 KM drive to Hamilton. Well I thought the cancellation may just be blessing in disguise. So, it is going to be a leisure day driving to Hamilton.
We make a first stop at Avocado Orchard just outside Piahia. Trees are full of nice juicy green fruits.
Pictures with avocado trees…
Other fruits in the orchard…
We headed to the little kiosk to buy some avocados….. Yes… learn the various species of Avocados.
No one mend the kiosk and our first experience with Honesty Box.
It began to pour heavily as we left Piahia and we had to go at relatively low speed. It was three hours drive and we only cover 190 KM. No rain and we pulled over at Wellsford. It was time to satisfy our empty stomach.
Popping into a neat and cosy cafe with very friendly staff.
Superb coffee !
We ate heartily ….
We made a detour to relative house at Howick.
Bidding good bye to the happy girls, we drove to a Chinese Temple near Howick.
Many nice statues within the Temple compound.
Emulating…
1700 hrs… traffic was heavy as we made our way to Hamilton. Arriving at Villa on Grey Street, Hamilton. I was taken aback by the size of the unit !
Wow…. very spacious living room.
Master bedroom and two other bedrooms.
Very well equipped Kitchen….
And a neat dinning area.
This is the first time I complained about booking a unit that was too spacious….indeed it is too spacious for two of us. We decided to shut off all other room and use the room that we need.
Avocado Salad dinner !
End of Day 11 :
No Hole in the rock cruise. I was fairly worn out after a long hours driving amid slow moving traffic. And my first experience of oversize units for two of us to stay in.
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