Alexia Santamaria checks out highlights for a family holiday in Hamilton
Every time I take my family to Hamilton, there seems to be one more fun thing to do, one more amazing restaurant, one more lovely walk to explore, one more reason to go again. Even better, it's an amazing stepping off point for other Waikato activities like Hobbiton (45 minutes away), Wairere Falls (one hour away), Waitomo Caves (one hour away) and the beach at Raglan (45 minutes away). If you haven't explored this part of the North Island with your tribe, it's high time you did. Here's what to do when you get there:
Cycling
Definitely bring the bikes on this trip (or hire them) as there are so many cycleways to explore. Hamilton's ideal if you have multiple levels of ability in your family – it's relatively flat and has around 150km of bike paths and cycle lanes, including almost 30km running alongside the beautiful Waikato river.
The Waikato River, as seen from the Riverside dining area. Photo / Alexia Santamaria
Hamilton Gardens
The ultimate tester for any botanical excursion is an 11- or 14-year-old boy; this demographic can be notoriously hard to impress with anything floral, in my personal experience.
Our sons loved the internationally acclaimed Hamilton Gardens as - it seems - did many others much younger than them. Full of colour and fun, it's a great day out and the new surrealist garden is the absolute icing on the cake. As you enter it's hard not to feel like you've suddenly shrunk as towering "trons" loom above you (these are animatronic trees with moving branches). Kids will love having their picture taken by giant doors, wheelbarrows and spades and the entrance with its clever floors will trick their eyes too. There's a cafe on-site, playground and lots of space to run.
Make sure to explore the Japanese, Indian, Chinese and Italian gardens all with their own impressive individual style.
Hamilton Gardens. Photo / Alexia Santamaria
Hamilton Zoo
Home to more than 600 native and exotic animals, Hamilton Zoo is always a hit. It's a great place for a picnic, in between making friends with alpacas, giraffes, Kune Kune pigs, ring-tailed lemurs, bison, tuatara - and everything in between. If your kids really love animals it's worth planning your day around the fascinating keeper talks.
Waikato Museum
Make sure you schedule a decent amount of time for this excursion - more than you might have originally planned. Once you've got past the impressive galleries and beautiful waka, your kids are not going to want to leave the highly interactive Exscite and Inventors and Innovations spaces. There is so much for them to do and they'll love the fact that rather than saying "don't touch" you'll be encouraging them to get all over all the exhibits. You might find yourself tempted to play with giant Connect Four and Lego-style blocks or try to figure out some of the fascinating science experiments. Or you might want to just sit on the side and enjoy the fact they are happily entertained for a while.
Hamilton Museum will appeal to the entire family. Photo / Alexia Santamaria
Family-friendly culinary delights
When you look at it, there are a number of very successful nationwide food franchises that started in Hamilton. Winner Winner, originally from Hamilton East is super-family friendly (the fried chicken is truly outstanding) and now has two locations in Auckland and one in Wellington; Good George's breweries started in Hamilton and are spreading fast nationally; Mama's Donuts can now be found in Tauranga, Hawke's Bay, Dunedin, and Auckland and need I say more about the mania surrounding Duck Island Ice cream, also born in Hamilton? (If you've never tried it, you are truly missing out). All these are worth a visit, but also make sure you have at least one dinner by the river - Mr. Pickles or Banh Mi Caphe (Vietnamese) are both great or The Bearded Weasel if your little ones have less exotic tastes - what is it with amazing fried chicken in this town? There's a kind of amphitheatre area just outside all these eateries where you can sit with takeout or an icecream and the kids can run themselves ragged, while you gaze upon the river. Perfect.
Hamilton's Winner Winner is highly recommended for your chicken dinner. Photo / Alexia Santamaria
Hamilton is definitely worth a weekend visit, and it would be silly not to explore further through the Waikato while you're there. Within an hour you can be poking through Hobbit holes, ziplining in an underground cave, gawking open-mouthed at the North Island's highest waterfall or chilling out at the beach. What more could you want?
CHECKLIST: HAMILTON
WHERE TO STAY The newly renovated Ramada by Wyndham is right in the heart of the city, making it easy to walk anywhere. It's right across the road from Riverside Lane and its dining options. DETAILS waikatonz.com For more New Zealand travel ideas and inspiration, go to newfinder.co.nz and newzealand.com
