Tauranga to Auckland , through the Waikato 6 July

The Return

So after dropping a new Suite for the Soul Creation and picking up some new stock Having spent the night in Tauranga, it was time to get back home to Siverdale.

You can never get too much of Hobbiton.

Here is the view from the same position, but looking North, another prosperous Waikato town.

Waharoa and a little Presbyterian Church which has some significance in my family history,

Then on to Morrinsville and the Nottingham Castle Hotel, strange mix an Australian type Pub, but in plaster not timber, with an English name and a sort of 1920s feel about it.

l
ooking North on the same intersection

Then behind me, where the 21 st Century makes an appearance

Here is an original "Car Shed" I would guess from 1920s, the earliest garage, back in the days when cars ran on Benzine (now we call it petrol)

Here is the whole property, with the Californian Bungalow, which presumably was built at the same time





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Here is a slightly earlier home, a cross between a Villa and a Californian Bungalow, with the detailed woodwork on the porch, maybe "Arts n Craft" influence. My guess would be pre or post First Wall War, so approximately 100 years old.

The 1920s must have been a golden age for the Waikato, there  is a lot of significant architecture from the period.

Another  Country Hall in my collection this time Mangateparu.

Mangateparu, a school, a Hall, a Domain, two empty shops and a few houses, rural hamlet, whose purpose has all but disappeared.

This lake was a discovery for me.

Lake Waikare

It looked very nice to me, but is not very well known, apparently it is almost dead due to pollution, or more acutely nitrate pollution which has killed the nature ecosystem, Caused by farming and draining the natural wetlands surrounding it.

Here is the town on the outskirts, Te Kauwhata.

Te Kauwhata should be more successful than it is. It has been a grape growing area for years, there are some wineries around and it is also on the banks of a beautiful lake, on the railway to Auckland. But, nothing has ever quite clicked.

Then, back to the city.