Flag Inn Ambassador Hamilton

Hello All!<br><br>So after two long weeks of being in Auckland I finally ventured out. I met a fellow traveller from London who was on their way to Hamilton to stay with some friends. Inviting me along, we jumped on a 3 1/2 hour bus south east for a long weekend. <br><br>After arriving I was introduced to Ryan and Tracey who were instantly welcoming and friendly. We took a quick "tikki tour", which is basically a bunch of ...

... the beach, sand dunes like half pipes, hills covered in Mai Fluffs (those fluffy plants Mai and Josiah always played with), shells in mathematical curls, a dead stingray curled up like a leaf. There was cafe sitting on Bow street, with the wide median and palm trees running down the middle... some dudes tossing a rugby ball in the middle of the street, tourists eating ice cream and complaining. There was a bonfire with a boy from the Netherlands named Stein, who was ...

On Thursday we finally went to the famous Hamilton gardens and they are wonderful, created on an old rubbish dump through the vision of one man. A Peter Sergal, who worked on the council, suggested the idea and amazingly the council agreed he could go ahead with the project. The gardens cover 90 acres or so and in addition to lawns, extensive rose ...

... I'd definitely like to do again. Like anything, you need to devote some time and practice to get the skill. For exercise we'd run into town, go for a walk down to the beach, gather a group for pick-up football or ultimate. We went into town adn played soccer with teh locals one night which was fun too. The summer touch rugby hadn't started up yet, otherwise, you know I'd be there!! During the evenings, we'd watch a dvd in the 'TV caboose' or play a game ...

I was looking at a recipe the other day, which involved using melamine. You know, that stuff that is turning up in Chinese milk powders and baby formulas. This recipe involved milk, but the only use of the melamine was using boards made of melamine to press cheese. So why on earth would you want to put a substance related to cyanamide into milk? Why would you want milk to be fire-retardent? Or full of pesticides containing melamine? Does baby formula need ...

... autism has honed my reflexes to a razor sharp degree... and really, he's pretty harmless in a room full of people putting themselves between him and I. That isn't to say that I ever take anyone I work with forgranted, I have had enough small children pull fast ones on me to know never to let my guard down especially around men who are bigger than me. Mostly, the nerves of the rest of the staff in regards to this "issue" was wearing ...

... We went out on kayaks in the afternoon up and down the river estuary. Unfortunately the evening was a bit of a disaster: I burnt my thumbs getting a pan out of the oven and stuck them in the freezer to cool down. This is exactly what NOT to do, I now know. I actually fainted and woke up slumped on the kitchen floor up against a cupboard, with a girl slapping me around the face and putting my legs up in the air. However, I thought I was having a ...

... at! It was miles and miles down a dirt track and chucking it down with rain at the time so incredibly slippy, little scary at times (i don't think the car or Rich enjoyed that drive very much!) We didnt do an awful lot in Raglan, just enjoyed relaxing on the beach etc, we had considered going to 'Soundsplash' eco reggae festival while we were there, but there werent any day tickets, and it was too expensive to go for the whole weekend. On ...

I helped Charlotte get her horse ready for a show, even though a little bit rusty using the needle and thread, I didn't do too bad a job. Now Jamie and I have decided we need to get fit for trekking in South America we set off up a lookout of Taupo/Rotorua area, I had near heart failure walking up, Jamie annoyingly enough didn't even break into a sweat. Anyway it was well worth it, once we were up the views were amazing. You ...