48 Hours In Hamilton, NZ – Here’s What We Did

After arriving at Auckland Airport at 9am, we picked up our rental car and hit the ground running driving.

With only six days in New Zealand, we wanted to make the most of our time in the country. Our first couple of days were spent in and around the city of Hamilton – here’s everything that we got up to.

Waitomo Glowworm Caves

This was our first main stop on Day 1. The Glowworm Caves in Waitomo were first discovered in 1887, with tours starting just two years later in 1889.

More than 100 years later, the tours are still going strong and are well worth experiencing. We paid 51 New Zealand Dollars (NZD) per person which is ~$35 USD.

The experience begins with a tour of the caves and a description of how the caves and its stalagmites and stalactites were formed. You also learn about the lifecycle of glowworms (spoiler alert: they don’t have much of a life). You’re not allowed to take photos inside the caves (including when you view the glowworms), so here’s a photo of the entrance:

At the end of the tour, you get in a boat to go along the underground river where you view all the glowworms on the cave’s ceiling. In addition to not being able to take photos, they have everyone sit in silence while boating down the river to view the glowworms.

I was initially disappointed that we couldn’t take photos to share with you all, but in hindsight I’m really glad. As no one else was able to take photos, no one obstructed our view and there were no flashes going off. That, combined with the silence, made the experience significantly more special and serene.

As you arrive at the cave’s exit at the end of the boat ride, you’re advised that you can take photos of the last few glowworms. My phone decided to take ages to take a photo, but I just managed to get a shot of the glowworms. Those two teeny green / blue streaks you see? That’s the glowworms. I know it doesn’t look impressive, but the rest of the cave prior to that section was magical.

Here’s the boat returning from whence it came after dropping us off.

Otorohanga Kiwi House

After leaving the Waitomo Glowworm Caves, we saw a sign for Otorohanga Kiwi House. We figured that we couldn’t come all the way to New Zealand and not see a kiwi, so we stopped by.

Tickets were $24 NZD per person (~$16.50 USD). I’m afraid to say that it wasn’t really worth it.

We’d assumed it would primarily be about kiwis, but most of the displays consisted of ducks and geckos. There were a couple of kiwi sections, but we didn’t see any of them on our walk around as they were in their burrows.

As we went to leave, we mentioned to the person on the front desk that we sadly hadn’t been able to see any of the kiwis. One of the kiwi sections is right next to the entrance, so she took us back over and thankfully there was a kiwi snuffling around.

That area’s kept very dark as kiwis are nocturnal, so it was still fairly hard to see it and photos weren’t allowed here either.

Otorohanga Kiwi House wasn’t a complete waste of our money seeing as we eventually got to see a kiwi, but it’s not somewhere we’d recommend visiting either.

Hobbiton

The next morning we headed to Matamata to go on the Hobbiton Movie Set tour. When the original Lord Of The Rings movies were filmed, the Hobbit houses were created from cheaper, less durable, materials as they weren’t sure how successful the movies would be. Those original houses were therefore torn down after the movies were filmed.

When it came to filming the Hobbit movies, the director Peter Jackson (and the farmer who owns the land where it was filmed) decided to use more durable materials. These new Hobbit houses are therefore expected to last 50 years and it’s the reason we can now all go on a Hobbiton Movie Set tour.

Shae’s a big Lord Of The Rings and Hobbit fan, as are her parents. (Shae’s middle name is Evenstar which comes from the LOTR books). I’ve watched all the movies but didn’t think they were particularly amazing (please don’t throw your second breakfast at me), but I LOVED visiting the set.

The set creators have done a stunning job, with a large team of people constantly working on the scenery and houses to keep them in great condition. There are actual fruit and vegetable gardens all over and the gardeners are allowed to take the produce home with them so that it doesn’t go to waste.

Tickets were $79 NZD (~$55 USD) and were absolutely worth the money. This included a guided tour around the set and a free drink in the Green Dragon at the end.

We’ll have a separate post all about Hobbiton tomorrow as Shae took some freaking amazing photos (far better than my phone’s pics above).

Hamilton Christmas Tree Lighting

We visited Hamilton at the perfect time of year as it meant we got to attend their Christmas tree lighting. Shae loves Christmas, as you might be able to tell from the radiating festive spirit in the photo below.

And yes, that is a Christmas sloth top she’s wearing.

Less perfect was the weather, as a couple of hours before the lights were due to be turned on it started raining heavily. Thankfully it cleared up in time for the lighting, but it meant the bands playing Christmas music beforehand weren’t able to perform. Still, it gave us a chance to go to Nando’s while we waited (see below).

The Hamilton Christmas tree was extremely impressive. At 27m tall (almost 90 feet), it looked enormous.

Even more impressive was the light display. I’d been assuming that it would just be lit up with sparkling lights, but it was so much more.

The tree had a full-on moving light display with Santa, penguins and a snowman making an appearance.

We were glad we stuck out the weather in order to watch the lighting as it really was impressive.

Food

As you’ll discover from following our blog, we like our food. Here are some of the edible highlights from our time in Hamilton.

Ice Cream

Our very first stop on our first day – before we even got to the Waitomo Glowworm Caves – was to get ice cream on Great South Road in Pokeno.

A leaflet we’d picked up at the car rental agency mentioned that you can get ice cream as big as your head and who are we to deny New Zealanders of the opportunity to offer us that vital public service 😉

They weren’t kidding about it being as big as your head. You can get 12 (large) scoops of ice cream for $14 NZD (~$10 USD).

That would’ve been excessive (even for Shae and myself), so we went with six scoops instead. We chose several different chocolate flavors, coconut and salted caramel from a selection of 30+ flavors.

We did have a problem though. After being served the ice cream, we discovered they only took cash or debit cards. I tried using my Wells Fargo debit card just in case but no joy as it wasn’t a New Zealand debit card. I went next door to try to withdraw cash from an ATM but that didn’t work either.

The owner was thankfully very gracious and told us we could swing by to drop off the cash the next time we were passing by. We therefore headed straight to a regular bank and used their ATM. Thankfully that worked, so we immediately went back to pay for our ice cream.

Pies

Before our trip, we were told we needed to get pies in New Zealand. No further information – just that we needed to get pies.

That was some of the greatest life advice I’ve ever received.

I’ve since averaged at least one pie per day since we arrived. Peri-peri chicken, Thai chicken, minced beef (i.e. ground beef), beef and ale – they’re all complete deliciousness.

Nando’s

OK, so this is a chain restaurant that’s not even from New Zealand. In my defense though, I’m originally from the UK and they’re huge there. They’re also only in four US states at the moment, so it’s been a long time since I’ve eaten there.

Any opportunity to eat at Nando’s is therefore a worthwhile opportunity. Their specialty is peri-peri chicken that comes in varying degrees of spiciness.

I ordered my chicken covered in hot peri-peri sauce in a pita pocket with peri-peri seasoned fries. If you’ve never eaten there, you need Nando’s in your life.

One of the funniest things I’d read in a long time was a Buzzfeed article about going for a cheeky Nando’s (language warning).

My favorite part was the following explanation of what a “Cheeky Nando’s” is which (sadly) makes sense to me. Good luck deciphering it if you’re from elsewhere though!

you know when you go down town with the lads and you all realize you’re hank marvin’ so you say “lads let’s go Maccers” but your mate Smithy a.k.a. The Bantersaurus Rex has some mula left on his nandos gift card and he’s like “mate let’s a have a cheeky nandos on me” and you go “Smithy my son you’re an absolute ledge” so you go have an extra cheeky nandos with a side order of Top Quality Banter

Accommodation

We booked a two night stay on Airbnb at this two bedroom property and had a great stay. It cost ~$120 USD per night which we found very reasonable given that there were four of us.

The beds were comfortable, it had a full kitchen with a small dishwasher and a lovely deck area.

Final Thoughts

The city of Hamilton wasn’t too exciting based on our (albeit limited) experience. Hamilton residents also don’t appear to consider it a tourist destination based on their “You’re visiting Hamilton?” incredulity.

Having said that, we enjoyed their Christmas tree lighting ceremony. It’s also a perfect place to use as a home base for visiting the Waitomo Glowworm Caves and Hobbiton.

And there’s a Nando’s, so they have that going for them.

Follow Our Entire Trip Down Under

Be sure to also check out all our other posts from our trip to New Zealand and Australia:

• Introduction: A Month In New Zealand And Australia
• Review: United Polaris Business Class 777-300ER San Francisco to Auckland
• 48 Hours In Hamilton, NZ – Here’s What We Did
• Experience Hobbiton With These 37 Photos
• Exploring New Zealand’s Forgotten World Highway
• Walking To Mount Damper Falls In 25 Photos
• 24 Hours In New Plymouth, NZ: Beach, Mountain & Too Much Food
• You Should Go To Hell For Great Pizza
• Our First 24 Hours By Lake Taupo, NZ
• Jumping In At The Deep End On Lake Taupo
• Kangas And Vineyards And Beers, Oh My – Our Hunter Valley Wine Tour
• Pawsome Pepper Participation In A Pikelet Pawtographing
• A Day In Sydney – Macarons, Fireworks & The Best Hot Chocolate Ever
• Cuddled By Koalas At Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary
• The Ultimate Reef Experience At The Great Barrier Reef
• Meeting Gem The Wombat: A Pat & Play For 15 Minutes One Day
• Penguins, Starfish & A Chocolate Factory – A Day Out On Phillip Island
• Our Favorite Things In Melbourne, Australia
• Review: Thai Airways Business Class Melbourne to Bangkok
• A Quick Stop In Taipei
• Review: EVA Air Business Class Taipei to New York JFK