Jon had stopped in Cambridge on his way back from Hamilton one day and thought it was worth a visit.
We set off and had coffee in a lovely little cafe near McLaren Falls. Coffee bars are a relatively new thing here in NZ and they do them really well. You find them in the most amazing places and we have yet to have a bad cup of coffee, flat white being our favorite.
Because you have to drive on main roads to get around as there are no motorways or dual carriageways as in the UK you find lots of interesting little shops, potteries and craft places along the roads much like it used to be in UK before all the roads bypassed the towns and villages - if you stopped at them all it could take a very long time to reach your destination
The journey takes you through Kaimai Mamuka Forest Park climbing to a height of 693m with stunning views and rock formations.
As you get closer to Cambridge so the stud farms appear and there are quite a few, not as many as in Newmarket but still very impressive. We also passed deer farms and alpaca farms along with many sheep and cattle.
Cambridge itself is quite small, population 11,000, but it is very pretty and is most famous for its selection of trees which are stunning and it will be worth coming back in the later in the autumn to see the colours.
We walked the suggested route from the Tourist Information Office which took us along the Waikato river which looked very dangerous with many whirlpools. We stopped there for our picnic before continuing the route which took us across a "trading estate"!!!! We then went into a beautiful park with a huge sunken lake, a waterfall and the most amazing selection of trees. We saw the old Cambridge Bowling Club and bandstand and it all looked soooo English.
We completed our walk in time to go into St Andrews Church before it closed which is beautiful. It is all white outside and the most lovely wood inside with wonderful stained glass windows all made in England.
We walked down the main street passing their clock tower which does not have the same problem with traffic as Newmarket clock tower!! We walked on to the Court house which is now a small but very interesting museum.
We had done enough walking by this time and so thought we would head home. I had been looking to see where the 2010 World Rowing Championships are due to be held and so we headed off to Karapiro Lake which is just east of Cambridge and on our way home.
To get to the lake you have to drive across a single lane road, controlled by traffic lights, over the top of the Karapiro Dam which was quite exciting. Not sure how such a small road is going to cope with a world championship!
A competition was taking place between NZ colleges and it was a lovely atmosphere. All the colleges had big tents set up along the lakeside. It is a really pretty setting and a lot of work is being carried out in preparation for next year.
It was such a busy day we were glad to get home and have our bbq even though I was bitten to pieces again. When are these insects going to get used to me, or me to them!
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