Spooky, Eerie and Mysterious Fog

Julie - Waikato River - looking south - foggy morning - ducks in the background - March 2025

photo of Julie on the edge of the Waikato River on a foggy autumn morning wearing a pink Icebreaker beanie and black Kathmandu jacket.

Waikato River – foggy autumnal morning

The Mighty Waikato Shrouded in Fog

I live about 5-10 mins walk away from the Mighty Waikato River in Hamilton, New Zealand.

I’m blessed!

I realise not everyone can go for a morning walk in beautiful, natural surroundings; some people can’t stretch their eyes because they live in a concrete jungle full of high rise buildings. I’ve been-there-done-that. But not any more. Fortunately.

When I stepped outside this morning and saw the fog, I just knew my route needed to be down by the river. I knew the mist would be thicker down there. And it was – I could barely see the other side.

I’m also blessed in that I have plenty of choices with my routes. I can walk along the streets, being nosey and noticing what’s changed in peoples’ gardens since the last time I walked past.

Or I can walk a couple of different “walkways” – paved or formed pathways through parks and reserves. Hamilton City Council does a great job of planting out, creating more and looking after hundreds of kms of walk/cycleways in the city.

Again: I’m blessed to have this choice.

Or I can go downhill (which means uphill! on my return) to the Mighty Waikato River.

Back in the day I used to run different routes of walk/cycleways along the River. Those routes are undulating, some sections have quite the incline.

When I moved to Hamilton in 2008, I made a new friend; we used to run the river pathways together a couple of times midweek and then again on Sunday mornings.

One year we did the Huntly Half Marathon. Our training route was the then-southernmost bridge (Cobham) to the most northernmost bridge (Pukete) – 10km bridge to bridge. We’d clock up 20km starting at one of the middle bridges, run south to Cobham, turn around and head back north to Pukete, turn around again, and head back to our starting point.

I remember one Sunday morning my first year in Hamilton – I wondered what on earth kind of place I’d moved to – the fog was so thick I could barely see where I was running.

On that foggy Sunday morning run it was oh-so-cold! I never warmed up on that run.

But this morning’s walk wasn’t like that – I power walked it out to my “cardio beat” playlist – full of disco music that makes me smileontheinside; I worked up a bit of a glow.

A great way to start the day!