Wednesday, September 16, 2015

The Gallagher Great Race

On the weekend just been, the Waikato River saw some pretty fierce and impressive rowing from high quality rowers from around the world. If your interested in rowing, The Gallagher Great Race is a great event to watch from the Waikato riverbank and the best part is it's free!

Each year in September a number of teams compete in rowing races on the Waikato River, a stone throw away from Hamilton city's main street. The hype of the day is heavily weighted towards the Gallagher Great Race. The Gallagher Great Race involves a number of high profile universities such as The University of Cambridge, Harvard University, The University of Melbourne, The University of Sydney and The University of Waikato. These universities battle it out for the ultimate prize, the Harry Mahon Trophy for the men and the Bryan Gould Cup for the women.

In the men's race Harvard University took it out this year for the first time in the competition's 14 year history, Harvard is the first USA team to have won the Harry Mahon Trophy. The University of Waikato men's rowing team has won 9 out of the 14 competitions.

Gallagher Great Race Harry Mahon Trophy and Bryan Gould Cup Results:

Men: Harvard University 13:23.12, 1; Cambridge University 13:29.05, 2; Waikato University 13:29.22, 3.

Women: Waikato University 15min 40.60sec, 1; Sydney University 16:21.11, 2; Melbourne University 18:14.35, 3.


Here is the link to the Official Website for The Great Race http://www.thegreatrace.co.nz/

Rowers on the Waikato River, New Zealand


Waikato Riverbank Crowd - The Gallagher Great Race
Harvard University Crew - Winners of the Harry Mahon Trophy 2015

Images taken from:www.thegreatrace.co.nz, @eweijschede and @timmacindoe

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Rocket Coffee - Hamilton NZ Style

So it's been a while since my last blog post, over 3 years in fact but can still see enough people traffic to warrant some more blog posts! :D. I thought why not reignite this blog where I left off... coffee, yes coffee but the best coffee in the Waikato region.... - Rocket Coffee!

This cafe has spunk man, a record player playing different and unique records everyday, the cafe itself is situated in what looks to be an old mechanics garage. The back of the cafe houses Rocket's in-house roasting and one side of the premise is where the distribution of Rocket's coffee leaves for all the cafes' using Rocket's beans. Both the distribution and the roasting part of the cafe can be viewed through glass screens.

The coffee itself (my favourite part about Rocket) is AMAZING!! It has its own original taste, my go to is the mocha which is rich, creamy and full of chocolate goodness. The staff are awesome too, friendly and remember your orders! Best time to go is before 9:00am weekdays to avoid the rush :)!

So if your in Hamilton on your travels make sure you stop in to Rocket Coffee :)

@rocket_coffee