 It's true I was banned by the Sky City Casino here in Hamilton for two years and I wasn't allowed to go into any of the Sky City casinos in New Zealand for a total of two years. You are not going to want to miss the story. I am going to tell you the story as I travel around and see what you can do in 24 hours in Hamilton, New Zealand. Hamilton, New Zealand is located in the top part of the North Island kind of in the middle. It's really great because this location is just south of Auckland and you can easily get to both coasts on a weekend trip. It does have a reputation though of being kind of a place like why would you want to live there? Why would you want to go there? So today we're going to figure out what exactly you can do. Why would you spend time in Hamilton in 24 hours? Let's go check it out. I'm here at the Z Long Estate. It's amazing. It's the only place where you can get tea actually grown in New Zealand. Only place in the whole country and it's shipped around the world. If you are not in New Zealand ever you still should order some tea here. It's fully organic and wins awards every year. Let's go. So what we grow here is the chameleon silences and we make five different types of tea out of that. So we have a really nice earthy green tea, three different types of oolong and a very nice and sweet black tea which is actually really nice as a dessert tea as well. All award-winning teas as well. So can you tell me a little bit about why this is the only place that grows tea in the country? So I found that Vincent Chen he started, he saw that the community at Flower is flowering in New Zealand and he thought like oh there's a community at some sort of a tea. Yeah yeah so he started experimenting with it and he was a very like tea enthusiastic and he got some cuttings over from Taiwan and started to plant them and now we ended up with a tea plantation 48 hectares and 1.2 million tea bushes. So it starts with the picking and you can see the equipment that they wear like the heads is still like the tea pickers here on the estate as they were exactly the same. They have like little razors on their fingers to be able to pick the tea really quickly but also to not damage the plant. So like a clean cut. So everything is hand-picked here? Yes. Okay. Yeah. When we harvest we pick by hand and we harvest the top three leaves of the pot. The top three? Yes. Okay. There's no scent or there's no smell. After that room that was just in with all that foul. Yeah. Actually tea and chocolate. So this is a green tea red rose and cinnamon and manuka. So then it gets sweet. It's a really nice and fresh light tea but with the rose and cinnamon and then we have our sweet amber which is a black tea with lemon and ginger and we paint that with a chocolate also with ginger powder which is quite nice and spicy. Okay. You guys have to come here and do this tea chocolate tasting. Oh my good best. Okay. Just finished my tour with Zilong. Amazing guys. You need to come here and at least do the high tea. The high tea looks stunning. There's like events going on there today so I wasn't able to and if you want to do a tour like I did where I just was able to see the plantation and they walk me around a little bit just reach out to them and they'll let you do that as well and if you want to try some of their tea you can do that right in the gift shop. Definitely check out Zilong. So this is how the story really goes. We were in Hamilton for a weekend for a sporting event for one of my kids as I was in charge of the other three children and then it was a blazing hot day in Hamilton and then I saw Sky City and it had like all the stuff to do for kids like bowling in the arcade and I was like cool I bet you they have air conditioning because nobody had air conditioning and I was like let's go in there check it out and we did and we went up to the arcade and then my kids are playing and I was just sitting there and I was like I should go check out the casino because I had never been in the casino in New Zealand and my attitude is you got to try everything so I go in with $10 to the casino and my kids stay at the arcade it's just up the stairs in the same building my older kid was old enough to babysit and so I just went to the casino for 20 minutes and then that is where the most unexpected thing happened. So as a marketing professional I love it when companies actually use their name for marketing and not wasted on like I mean like her last name or something that doesn't mean anything so for much today I'm going to go to the grumpy bake a lot of my community recommended this place and we're going to go check it out today here we go okay so I really wanted the pretzel at the grumpy baker but they were out so I have a hints and cheese savory is what they call if you haven't tried the meat pies in New Zealand oh my gosh so good oh that's nice perfect all right next we're gonna head to the Waikato Museum it should be good okay so a must stop is the Waikato Museum it was amazing like it's free mostly but I would check out that wildlife museum part like it's like the best photography of wildlife around the world it was amazing very very cool worth the stop probably wouldn't take you more than an hour but check it out and also right next door is like this art museum and I think that's free too so let's go check that out so another popular thing that you could do in Hamilton is just rent a bike or go for a walk along the river there's so many paths it goes forever and it's amazing all right so I bet you're dying to know what happened next so this is what happened so I was in the casino for a total of 20 minutes about ten dollars and I was walking out and these two burly guys had all my children they're like are these your abandoned children and outside I didn't abandon my children my oldest son was watching out and they're like well how old is he he's 13 well apparently in New Zealand you have to be 14 to watch your own siblings but in the US it's like 12 so like I didn't even know that and I was like okay okay so he's gonna be 14 next month like I didn't abandon my children they just kept using that word and I was like oh my gosh you guys are you serious and they're like we take this very seriously that you have but probably like I don't have the galing and like it was only in here for 20 minutes and like I swear to you like every single thing I said made it sound worse made it sound like I had a problem like I don't have a problem it was only in here for 20 minutes check the tapes you know oh my gosh I was like in panic because the way that they're talking like I don't know like I thought you know I don't know anything like social services like in the US gonna come after me and take my children and I was like what the heck is happening so they're like this is a very big deal and we need to write you up and we need to issue you a ticket I'm like are you serious clearly there's lots of moms that leave their children places and gamble so I was like okay okay that's fine whatever you need to do you need to do like I'm not gonna argue with his big burly guy so he writes he feels bad because he realizes that I didn't know a lot of these things but I'm so embarrassed you guys has literally taken me what four or five years to even tell you this story oh my is this like on my record like I'm looking for a job and no no no not unless you come back in here then he hands me the ticket and the ticket was for two years two years I'm banned from all Sky City casinos which is the only casinos in the country for like two years and then of course every time I say that makes it sound like I have a gambling problem so I was like okay two years fine I don't need to come back in because I don't have a gambling problem and it took me a long time to even tell people I told the rest of the family my husband and my oldest daughter who was at the volleyball camp that night and they were hysterically laughing at me but I was like devastating the embarrassed and so that's the story of how I got banned from the casino that you think it might end there it does it there's more all right let's see if the one you look back in the casino okay so the rain has come out but the gardens are still beautiful it's probably not the best time of year for me to be showing you all this as we're going into fall here but you will be so impressed with the gardens here in Hamilton and it's just kind of surprises you like you're in Hamilton it's you know it's like a normal city but then they have these stunning gardens so you're going to want to check it out okay so I am sure you are dying to hear the final point of the story because it's good so let's pass forward 2.5 years I've done my two years more than two years and I'm in Queenstown I'm shopping I have to use the bathroom the public toilets are quite far away so I decide um that I'm just oh I see the Sky City I'm allowed to go back in I know that they have a bathroom because I try to keep everybody in the casino so I go there I go to the bathroom and I'm walking out as I'm walking out these two guys come to me they're like is there a reason why you're sitting off the silent alarms no like room there shouldn't be but I think I know so I told them what happened they escorted me back to this room now let me just tell you it wasn't just like a room it was like I'm going down corridors I'm starting to get like freaked out because I'm like by myself I don't know who these people are they sit me down they're like you you've been banned for the casino for two years and my guy now after like you can't just come back in sorry didn't know that thought I did my two years we're like you have to be interviewed to make sure that you are capable of coming back into the casino and I'm like okay fine interview me but you guys this interview was so interesting because it was like oh it was like some personal questions like are you allowed do you make enough money to go to the casino like yes how much money do you make per year okay what how much are it is this cost the net cost in like 20 minutes of questions then he's like okay that's fine that's what I needed he's like I'm going to squirt you out you're not allowed to come back into a casino for three to five days as this process says and I'm like don't worry I was just in the bathroom and he was like he could actually see my whole original tape and like oh yeah I see what happened you're only in the casino for 20 minutes this is what I've been saying so anyway pretty funny but funny not funny and he has squirted me out and I you know obviously didn't go back in so can I get back into the Hamilton casino well I went in yesterday I got back in no silent alarms going off so that's the story of how I got banned from Hamilton Sky City Casino so I'm just leaving the gardens now and it takes him an hour to walk through at the most and there's got a tour I believe for 75 minutes if you want to do that but they're amazing it's a little bit rainy but you can still walk through they provide umbrellas if you need and of course you have to have your good raincoat which I tell everybody if you're coming to New Zealand have a real good raincoat okay so I just went to a place called Mama Donuts that you guys recommend and look at this pool like for five dollars you can get like this donut maker you know anyway we're going to try them today they smell amazing and what I really like about it is that they're not perfect looking it's like real homemade goods okay guys I'm going to try the Mama Donuts okay this is like so soft and it's hot and it's fresh here we are oh if you don't know I'm a huge Krispy Kreme fan so oh my gosh the dough has a really unique taste I guess really good oh my gosh it's huge but it's so good you guys want to check out Mama Donuts okay we are heading out to dinner tonight Mexican it is in Hamilton this is an amazing place I've been to the same wine in Rotorua and loved it so here we go