Hamilton

We spent two days in Hamilton at the end of last week conducting survey work. Hamilton was the eighth city on our list. Hamilton is a city of almost 180,000 about a two hour drive south of Auckland. 

We did our typical survey work in meeting with school leaders, church leaders, and making connections with people that we met in our street interviews throughout the community. Hamilton is home to University of Waikato which is home to about 10,000 students. 

Hamilton is a very multi-cultural city, the most diverse of all of the city centers that we have visited. Were able to see this diversity played out in the malls we conducted street interviews at, the school we visited, and the net-ball game we went to. 

We came away from Hamilton without any strong feelings one way or the other, but the same overall sense that like so many other places in New Zealand, there is a lack of strong and healthy churches in this city. 

Here is a picture of the four of us that went to Hamilton next to the Waikato River, the longest river in New Zealand! This is our Rock-Star pose, we know, we are cool!