Cambridge Area Guide
The town of Cambridge, on the banks of the Waikato River 24 kilometres south east of Hamilton, has a charming English country atmosphere, with its tree-lined streets, village green and antique shops.The town was a military settlement in the 19th century when it was as far up the Waikato River as British gunboats could travel, and the Cambridge Museum has details of a range of heritage walking trails on its website. The Information Centre in the Town Hall complex at the corner of Queen Street and Victoria Street can advise on guided walks, but if you only have time for the highlights, the elegant St Andrew's Church at the corner of Victoria Street and state highway 1 is well worth visiting, as is Te Ko Utu Park opposite, with its walkways, sunken lake and waterbirds.
Cambridge is a major centre for breeding and training racehorses, and the town pays tribute to the bloodstock industry with a life-size bronze sculpture of a mare and foal outside the Town Hall on Victoria Street, and the Equine Stars Walk of Fame, a set of mosaics of prominent local horses embedded in the street pavements. The New Zealand Horse Magic Show at the Cambridge Thoroughbred Lodge offers a one-hour long horse show, and the opportunity to ride one of the horses.
To explore the waterways around the area, take a jetboat ride along the Waikato River to the sheltered waters of Lake Karapiro, eight kilometres south east of Cambridge, or hire a kayak to explore the lake itself independently. The lake was formed by the last of the eight hydro-electric dams on the Waikato River and is a major training ground for the country's elite rowers. The Karapiro Dam Power Station has a museum for a closer look at the dam and its workings.
The extinct volcano Mount Maungatautari just south of Lake Karapiro is the scene of an ambitious project to build a 47-kilometre long pest-proof fence around its bush edge, creating an artificial 'island', eradicating all mammalian pests and predators, and reintroducing endangered native birds, such as the kiwi, the kakariki, and the saddleback to the mountain. The Maungatautari Ecological Island Trust has an office in Cambridge, or visit their website to find out about walking tracks on the mountain.