I am organising a bus trip for 16 ladies on 28th November.

We are travelling to Te Aroha to visit a shop there, on to Gordonton for more shopping, high tea lunch at the tea plantation.

Can anyone suggest another place to visit in or around Hamilton/Cambridge in the afternoon, before we head home to Rotorua.

Is there a pottery? Or craft place? The ladies are mostly quilters and embroiderers so we know about all the shops related to those interests. I was just trying to widen their vision by going to somewhere a little different.

Would appreciate any suggestions.

Thanks

Hi Ali. The most common tourist stop is Hamilton Gardens, with various themed gardens. Also at the gardens in a different vein, you can walk down to the river and the Waikato River Explorer have various river cruises, ie lunch or teas. However they only operate Friday/Saturday/Sunday and their website says Wednesday/Thursday for July school holidays. As there are 16 of you, I wonder if you contact them and if you are not travelling on those days they may cruise for you, due to the size of your group.

You will love your High Tea at Zealong. I am not a tea drinker, so was a bit mmmm about having a lunch there. Everything was tea based, and tasted absolutely beautiful.

Hope this is of some help - Irene

ps edited to add regarding Splashy at Horotiu, which is paint your own ceramics. I am not sure if you are out of region though how you would collect your pieces as they are ready to collect after 10 days.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/06/2020 02:51AM by Irene Field.

If you need an afternoon pick me up coffee then Podium at Lake Karapiro has the most wonderful views.
It is spectacular to sit looking out over the lake.
There is the Garden Art Studio in Cambridge,



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/06/2020 06:05AM by helen.

Thanks girls. Good suggestions there.

I too totally agree with Lorna, Hamilton gardens so beautiful, we were there 2 days ago & the spring flowers are all out & such beautiful colours. The detail & work put into this is so thoughtful & tastefully done. A lot of volunteers helped put this together.

Thank you Lyn V, but your appreciation should be for Irene who suggested Hamilton Gardens. Being an ex-Hamiltonian, I do, of course, second her opinion.

Out if interest to you - I put it to the girls and they all felt that it should be a half day or more there, so they opted to check out the shops in Tirau on the way home and get an ice cream.

Maybe the gardens, including a boat trip will be an outing for the new year.

I don't know how tour leaders cope - as someone once said “It's like trying to herd cats”. ha ha!

It will be someone else's turn next time!

It's a shame Ali W that when you try to plan events they never seem to happen.Oh well.

Ok Ali we are out of another lockdown I hope you can make this happen.

Got everything sussed out, after 3 attempts got a lunch venue that was a good compromise for all budgets, spent ages on a time plan, negotiated morning tea at one shop and a discount at the other. And had a plan for the afternoon.

I even made some little gifts for each person and did a test run on some biscuits. Printed labels and prepped cellophane bags.

Now all I needed to do was gather the funds from everyone and pay the bus company.

Then I got the most apologetic email from the company owner - after many confirmations that it was all go, he found he had double booked the 16 seater for that day, and could we please change the date! WHAT!

After I had ground my teeth for a few minutes I made the decision to cancel the whole thing. I could not go through all that tooing and frowing again.

I now bow low to tour group leaders. Hand on heart, I just don't know how you do it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/15/2020 09:37PM by Ali W.

Oh, Ali hoe disappointing after all the effort you put in.

Oh that is a shame.