So where is Hamilton again?

Most of you have probably heard of Hamilton... but aren't entirely sure where it is. Well, it's on the North Island to start with, about an hour and a half south of the bottom of the Auckland sprawl. It's in a region called the Waikato, named after the Waikato River, which is NZ's longest river (which is to say, not very long!). The area is very much farming country - there's at least one huge dairy processing plant just outside Hamilton. The town itself has somewhere around 150 000 people, so it's a reasonable size without being big.
The company I'll be working for has their offices in Hamilton CBD, in one of the biggest buildings there - the building has 11 floors I think, and they're in level 9. From there, apparently you can see to the big mountains in the middle of the North Island - Mt Ruapehu and others. When I was there, it was raining, so we couldn't see much at all! To the west, the coast is about a 45 minute drive while to the east, the coast is slightly further. To the north, Auckland is about 90 minutes away, or the (apparently) beautiful Coromandel Peninsula is about the same distance north-east. So all up, Hamilton is pretty central to some nice stuff. I guess we'll have some exploring to do once we get there :D