Saturday Drinks, Sunday Walk and Some Skeletons

 Yesterday afternoon we popped around the corner to some friends to sample a pair of very pleasant Gins, along with a variety of different mixers. Arrived about three and got home around eight thirty I believe - I was somewhat less than compos mentis, and fell asleep on the couch for a couple of hours before wakening around eleven and taking the dog for a very short walk!

All good again today though and after a nice family breakfast at a local cafe with our son and daughter, my good lady and I drove an hour south to take a walk along the banks of the Waikato River as it runs from the Hamilton Gardens north into the CBD. This is only a small portion of the entire walk, which actually commences at Ngaruawahia to the north of Hamilton and takes roughly five hours in each direction - we both agreed that was somewhat excessive - perhaps we will do it another day! We did about 5km each way and the walk took us around 90 minutes - very pleasant.

This was the "flash" gin - the other was good ol' Gordons

Start of the walk in the Hamilton Gardens.

Hamilton Gardens is a public garden park in the south of Hamilton owned and managed by Hamilton City Council in New Zealand. The 54-hectare park is based on the banks of the Waikato River and includes enclosed gardens, open lawns, a lake, a nursery, a convention centre and the Hamilton East Cemetery

One of the several bridges spanning the Waikato, which is the longest river in New Zealand and was navigable as far up as Hamilton back in the 19th century. 

Victoria Bridge (originally known as the Hamilton Traffic Bridge and later also as The Bridge Street Bridge) is a steel arch bridge in Hamilton, New Zealand. The bridge has a Category I heritage protection.

The bridge has a main arch of 340 ft (100 m) and 4 land spans. Its total length is 500 ft (150 m). The road is 18 ft (5.5 m) wide and the footpath 4.5 ft (1.4 m). It cost £25,500, equivalent to over $4m in 2017 It replaced the 1879 timber Union Bridge.

In 1929 stone steps were built beside the western end of the bridge to link to Ferry Bank.

The view from Victoria Bridge upstream to the next bridge

Sign showing the walk we did

A eucalyptus tree in the Hamilton Gardens

First half of the completed skeletons including the leader to whom I added a cloak made from tissue soaked in watered down PVA - it was a bit of a bugger to paint "in situ" but I got it done in the end.

The Chinese symbol on the shield hopefully means Death!

That's all for today - lots more nearing completion on the painting desk so expect a couple more posts later this week.