I’m sitting in Hamilton’s Italian Renaissance Garden and my day has just been made.

It’s sunny, but cool. Tim’s working next to me and my parents are geocaching in one of the other gardens. It’s the school holidays, which explains all the children. Spring is very much in evidence.

I should be working too, but I can’t: my brain’s still swooning from the dizzying heights of fame.

It’s finally happened, you see.

A complete stranger approached me – here in the Hamilton Gardens – and said, “Are you Abigail Simpson? I read your blog!”

Oh. My. God.

Definitive proof that Poms Away isn’t read merely by friends, family and that person who keeps clicking on it after typing ‘amateur hairy chinese bush’ into a search engine! (One of my earliest posts describes the kiwi as a hairy fruit, also known as a Chinese gooseberry, that grows on a bush. I can only imagine the searcher’s disappointment.)

But anyway.

I’m supposed to be writing more about mine and Tim’s recent campervan trip. We did so much in nine days. I’ve spent the last three Poms Away articles describing places in Waitomo alone! We were there two nights. Before leaving for Tongariro National Park, we took advantage of a sunny winter morning to see Marokopa Falls and the Mangapohue Natural Bridge.

You may as well, as we did, visit Marokopa Falls and the Mangapohue Natural Bridge at the same time, as they’re just up the road from each other. Marokopa Falls are at the end of a really short track. You pretty much just park up and you’re there. Here’s a picture of our two-berth campervan rental at the side of the road, with sheep in the background just so you can be sure it’s in New Zealand:

I hesitate to say that Marokopa Falls are beautiful, if only because I always seem to be visiting waterfalls and they’re all beautiful. I mean I wrote an article about the best waterfalls to visit in the North Island for Not Australia and I can’t say Marokopa Falls are any better than any of those. They are fairly impressive, though. Marokopa Falls are quite wide and there’s an interesting rock formation down the side.

I’m not saying Marokopa Falls aren’t worth visiting, but if you’ve only got time to do one or the other, definitely do the natural bridge. Mangapohue Natural Bridge… well, actually, I’ll leave that for my next article.

Oh, just FYI: the picture at the top of this article wasn’t taken by me. It’s a public domain image from pixabay.com. The other photos are mine, though.

Also, I had a go at making an ad for one of my other sites, www.trippla.nz – what do you think? Does it look like a “real” ad?

Filed under: Nature, North Island Tagged: Hamilton Gardens, Marokopa Falls, New Zealand, Waitomo