New Zealand Day 3 Part 2 : Trip Down Memory Lane

It was already 4 pm by the time we get back to Hamilton from Auckland after taking our luggage from the police. That means we lost almost the whole day, and I really pity Mr D because he didn't get to really take his trip down memory lane in Hamilton as we were scheduled to leave Hamilton in the next morning to go to Waitomo Caves. We were supposed to have the later part of evening the day before and the whole day on day 3 for Hamilton, but the luggage incident ate the whole time.

After leaving our luggage in the motel, and perform our jama' prayer for Zuhr and Asr, we head straight to University of Waikato. I understand that Waikato means flowing water, where Wai = water. Mr D can still somehow remember the route to go to the university, after that many years. Nice area around the university, with the lakes and parks and garden. We spent quite some times walking around both the student village and academic blocks, with Mr D acting as the tourist guide telling me history and stories for each place hahaha...




I let Mr D decide where the next destination will be, as he knows Hamilton better. He set the GPS to go to 12 Jones Cr, without me knowing what is it that they have there. Later on I was told that was where his foster parents, Mr & Mrs W used to reside, and that's his home away from home throughout the 6 years he spent there. Both Mr & Mr W have passed away, and their daughter, who was very much a sister to Mr D, now resides in the US.



But it was quite sad though that the house is no longer there. So I didn't get to see his 'home away from home'.

It was already too late in the evening by the time we leave 12 Jones Cr, but Mr D still have something in his mind. We then went to the lake, where he used to jog around but it was already dark by then so I didn't get to see the whole lake then. But the timing was just right, we got to see the sunset.





There's nothing much in Hamilton, but for somebody who lived there for years, I can understand there might be certain things he still wanted to explore. 2 hours is definitely not enough. But it was already dark, and we didn't have much time. So we decided to go back to our motel, after we did a little shopping in Pak N Save downtown.

Back in Atrium, only then I realized how comfortable the motel was. It was spotless, the heating is excellent, and the internet line is unlimited. If ever I wanted more, it is the cooking utensils. There's no big microwave safe bowls provided, so we ended up buying our own so we can cook something at a much larger quantity. Dinner for that night was simple, bread eaten with prawn sambal, sliced raw tomato and golden kiwi. Yummy!!



And before I sleep that night, I was thinking, should we go to Waitomo Caves tomorrow, or should we spend more time in Hamilton before going off to Rotorua?