Middle Earth Tour Day 19: Firth Tower and the lost sock of Aaachoo!

Middle Earth Tour Day 19: Firth Tower and the lost sock of Aaachoo!

Today did seem to be nice enough and I allowed myself to sleep in for a bit though once I was outside I did see the bus that I was to catch the next morning outside the Information centre. I knew I had the right place and the night before I had heard the rain really come down along with the wind. I had thought that there would be more clouds and very windy too. I am glad that I didn’t need any wet weather gear at all. I had looked up the bus time table the night before and it seemed there were no buses in the area that went anywhere. What I did know was that I would need to do some washing before I left or else there would no clothes that were clean when I am in Whangarei.

I wanted to walk to the Firth Tower grounds to have a look so off I walked. I was going the same way as the hot springs too and once I seen they were 6kms away I went no way as that would take me most of the day. I followed Tower road from Broadway following the signs that pointed to where I wanted to be. I was surprised to find a track that would take me all the way out of town to the Firth Tower. I was half expecting to find myself walking on the side of the road like I had been on several other locations.  I wasn’t the only one who was using the path as mothers with prams were jogging by. It didn’t take long for me to reach the grounds of the Firth Tower. I found it wasn’t just one building, but several that had been taken from Matamata including one gate taken from the railway station and another from Bedford Park. I couldn’t jump the fence to go exploring as there might be people watching and I did find they seem to have an archive centre there too. It was lucky they had labels on objects as you would not know where they belonged though are they still historically significant when taken out of their original locations? The grounds were not open as I had thought and the tower was not really that big either. It would be a good place to visit again though wouldn’t take long to look around the grounds. The fence would have been easy to jump as I walked away back to town since there was no way to enter the grounds as no one was around. It was lucky I didn’t try to walk to the springs as the path ended where the museum grounds began.

I was wondering as I walked back what I was going to do with the rest of the day and had the idea to finish the heritage walk I had started the day before. I knew where to start the walk from and headed to the beginning of the Tom Grant drive as that was meant to be another part to the Centennial Drive that was in town. There was playground stuff all along the drive and I learnt I had to be careful as I had seen vehicles driving along the road too. I didn’t want to be surprised by a car pulling up behind me either. I made it to the other end of the drive and since I ddnt bring my map along for the walk I was unsure what direction to head in. So I guessed and came out at the one area I was not expecting and that was Founders Park, which was not far from where I was staying at all. There were no more reminders telling people about why the Drive had been part of the local heritage other than on the pamphlet.

Once I had lunch and a drink I went to sort out the stuff I needed to take to the Laundromat to be washed. I had to get change from the dry cleaner and while I waited for my clothes to dry I went for a coffee. I do wonder about people when you ask for a long black and they ask if you want milk with it. It wouldn’t be a long black if it had milk in it, but people might actually have a dash of milk. When I went back my clothes were not fully dry though I went to get more coins and someone had wiped the dry cleaner out of $40 worth. Could have been the bloke who came in with several baskets of clothes when I was nearly done with the dryer. Once I got back to my room I began packing my bags and sorting them for the trip to Whangarei when i leave in the morning. I like to be sorted early enough instead of rushing around an hour before shoving things in my bags.  I did wander around looking in the shops before I had finished everything. There were some magazines though several were interesting being in New Zealand as there was an Australian Submarine magazine that I never knew there was such a mag. Most of my day tomorrow will be spent either on the bus or waiting around for them though my wait in Hamilton will be the shortest. I will get to my destination around 4pm in the afternoon as I leave just after 8am. At least the trip will be broken up and I still have to wait in Auckland.