Stories

Let's shine a light on some businesses that have recently opened their doors in the central city.

If travel is calling your name, Travel Collective at 109 Ward Street (corner of Nisbet and Ward) is ready to help. These travel professionals have built genuine connections with local guides, hotels, and communities around the world. They know the hidden spots, the unforgettable experiences, and the stories that make travel truly meaningful.

Cavelh Homeware & Décor at 441 Victoria Street is where modern design meets traditional craftsmanship. Step inside and you'll find a carefully curated collection that turns a house into a home. Whether you're after that perfect statement piece or something subtle to tie a room together, this is your new go to spot.

Over at 1000 Victoria Street, Kythara Collective has just opened its doors this month! This luxury lash and brow studio is evolving into a complete beauty and wellness destination. Think of it as your retreat right in the heart of the city.

Feeling the tension in your neck and shoulders? Dynasty Remedial Massage has opened at 384 Victoria Street, bringing professional remedial massage therapy right to your doorstep. This March, Dynasty Remedial Massage are offering a 30-minute neck, shoulder and back massage for just $49. It's the perfect midday reset or after work treat when you need to release that built up stress and tension.

Bespoke menus, dinner at the zoo, and over $200,000 fundraised for Ronald McDonald House Charities - for Waikato Supper Club guests, Wednesday evening was a night out to remember.

The 440 guests who attended the event helped raise funds to support Ronald McDonald House Charities in providing accommodation to families with a child in hospital.

Event organisers and McDonalds franchisees Rob and Linley Parry said they were “blown away” by people’s generosity on the night.

After running 15 Supper Club fundraisers in Rotorua and a seven year hiatus, this was their first time organising the event in Hamilton.

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“We’ve been absolutely blessed with an enormous variety and number of auction items, and that was really exciting going into the auction knowing people had really good things to select,” said Linley.

“There are some really good people wanting to do really good things.”

While final figures were still being confirmed, the couple said the total funds raised was about $231,000.

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St Patrick's Day is falling on Tuesday 17th March. From breakfast through to late night celebrations, Hamilton's central city has everything you need for an unforgettable day.

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Start your morning with Live Music | Biddy Mulligans | Hamilton (17 Hood Street) with a legendary Irish Breakfast from 8:30am to 1pm. Tickets are $20 pre-sale from the bar or $25 on the day, and the entertainment keeps rolling all day long.

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You can head to Lucky Finns (26 Hood Street) from 8am for their special breakfast menu, premium Irish whiskeys, Guinness, Magners cider, traditional Irish food, and live music throughout the day.

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In the evening, The Mercury Room (15 Hood Street) have their $20 St Patrick's Special from 6pm to 11pm where you can choose a pint of Guinness and pizza or a Mojito and pizza. Either way, you're onto a winner.

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Why not rally your mates and book a St Patrick’s Bottomless Brunch for $59pp at House on Hood (27 Hood Street). DJs, themed and prizes up for grabs across two sessions from 6:30pm, this is one not to be missed.

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A full lunch and dinner menu is available at The Londoner plus some special St Patrick's Day dishes including steak, Guinness and cheese pie, corned beef, melted cheese, slaw and honey mustard bun, steak and Guinness hot pot, colcannon, Irish whiskey bread & butter pudding with salted caramel and whisky sauce! There will also be a random prize draw and main Guiness prize draw at 7pm.

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The white cross adorning the former Gateway Church on Victoria Street will soon be replaced by the golden arches of fast food giant McDonald’s.

And the owners are pledging to make the restaurant the number one Maccas in the country.

The church sold the site to McDonald’s Restaurants last year and moved to the corner of Clyde St and Grey St in Hamilton East.

Work is expected to begin next week, starting with the removal of the big white cross atop the church.

Owners Rob and Linley Parry want the building to be “the number one looking Maccas in the country”.

The restaurant will have an interior decor palette that’s likely to have “bit of everything”.

“The dining room is going to be the first decor palette in New Zealand, so we’re really excited about that.”

The Parrys run three other McDonald’s sites in Five Cross Roads, Chartwell and Hamilton East and found out late last year that they would run the new Hamilton central McDonald’s.

One measure of Graham Boswell's contribution to his profession was the over 500 acknowledgements that marked his passing on social media. A more profound appreciation of a man who gave his working life to not only sustaining the family business he inherited but growing it and forging industry connections locally, nationally and internationally, could be found in the substance of many of these reminiscences and tributes. A doyen of Hamilton photography and fierce advocate for the city's CBD commerce and history, Graham was admired as much for his warm, gentle manner behind the counter as he was respected for his vast knowledge, collegial encouragement of his peers and unquestionable personal integrity.

Beyond Snapshot, the business in which he worked in one capacity or another for over half a century, Graham was a loving husband, father and grandfather, a dedicated tramper and skier, a far-sighted and proactive member of community and industry organisations and a habitual collector of cameras, the founder and curator of his city's informal museum of photography.

Graham Robert Boswell was born 10 December, 1954, in Hamilton, the second child and only son of Maurice Robert Boswell and Yvonne Beverley Boswell (nee Blinkhorne). Eight years prior his father had purchased Bell's Photography, a Victoria St business founded back in 1928, which in 1946 he rechristened Snapshot. Yvonne was an employee of the former owner and she later married the new owner.

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Waikato travellers have taken to a return of trans-Tasman flights from Hamilton, with a 39% leap in Hamilton Airport passenger numbers in the second half of last year.

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And along with more incoming Aussies, some Kiwis are even driving down from Bombay to skip a trip out of Auckland over a Waikato offering.

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Hamilton Airport recorded the surge in passenger numbers during the six months to December 2025 - an increase of 71,000 travellers on the year earlier.

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According to their six-month report around 55,000 flyers were taking to the skies for international routes between Hamilton, Sydney and the Gold Coast.

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Hamilton Airport chief executive Mark Morgan said that since the start of Jetstar’s daily international flights across the ditch, “the buzz hasn’t stopped since”.

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The Waikato Times had earlier revealed that in the first month since the service launched, almost 9000 passengers took flights to Australia.

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