Saturday 18 February - it's Moving Day.
Lake Taupo to New Plymouth on the west coast of New Zealand.
Last night heavy rains passed over and around us as well as a few storms that lit up the late evening skies. Today, under cloudy skies that were clearly sad to see us leave Lake Taupo, we headed west for a four hour drive. The drizzly weather and winding roads made driving hazardous, the addition of hundreds of runners competing in the annual Lake Taupo company team circumnavigation run made it worse and the fog and rain as we climbed the mountains made it even worse than worse - worser!
Finally the runners disappeared and we settled in for the picturesque drive along the Forgotten World Highway (that's its real name) to New Plymouth. The highway winds it way through deep gorges, precariously up the side cliffs of steep mountains and runs along ridges with never-ending drop-offs to the bottom. All-in-all a spectacular, if not slower and more hyphenated way, to get to New Plymouth.
The overnight storms and heavy rain obviously came this way earlier too as there were at least 40+ rockfalls on the road, fallen trees, numerous patches of water over the road, as well as mud washouts and heaps of earlier landslides on the precipitous roads that had taken out half of them (these had been temporarily made safe by a few witches hats and red plastic safety fencing by authorities). It was with great relief to have safely negotiated the Highway and enter the normal roads around New Plymouth.
Our AirBnB is an apartment on a "Lifestyle Farm' attached to, but separate from, a young family's enormous house about 10 minutes south of New Plymouth. We have our own separate entrance, locked double garage, two bedrooms, laundry and the living area has views overlooking lush dairy farms to Mt Taranaki - a dormant and dominating volcano - in the distance. All-in-all a great place to stay for four nights.
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| Local walk to beach |
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| Beach walk that has to be a fire hazard |
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| One of Len Lye's works |
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Reflections from the outside Govett-Brewster Art Gallery
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Day two was filled with a few hours in the beautiful Pukekura Park and its great little zoo located right in the middle of town, a couple of lake walks followed by some of the remainder of the coastal walkway around to the port in the afternoon.
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| Poet's Bridge paid for by winnings on a horse called Poet - Pukekura Park |
All the while we were keeping an eye on the clearing (?) weather for day three and our planned assault on Mt Taranaki.
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| Some animals at the zoo - alpacas, meerkats, pheasant, various monkeys |
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| Public art in Pukekura Park |
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| Meeting of the Waters |
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| Mt Taranaki - still in cloud |
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| Dawson Falls walk |
Day three. Yes the weather was the best of the three days for those living below 800 metres at least. The good walks on Mt Taranaki in Egmont National Park start at 900 metres and that is where the clouds live most of the time. Undeterred and hopeful we headed up the mountain anyway, firstly on the southern side to do Dawson Falls and Wilkies Pools walks. No rain and beautiful alpine forests greeted us but unfortunately no views of the mountain top except for a fleeting glimpse of the near top from a lookout.
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| Dawson Falls |
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| Wilkies Pools walk |
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| Clear mountain stream |
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| Swing bridge over Wilkies Pools |
The walks really tested out Julie's six month old broken ankle and she had no problems at all. We walked through matted tree roots, over boulders, up and down hundreds of stairs and across bubbling mountain steams all with no problems - except for me who was exhausted from piggy backing Julie the whole way (:
Later we headed up the northern side of Mt Taranaki but the cloud cover was too thick to see anything so we headed home to ready ourselves for moving day tomorrow. We are off to Wellington for three nights.
So, if you ever have the opportunity, we would definitely recommend coming to New Plymouth (via the Forgotten World Highway) and experiencing the wonderful offerings of this region.
Next we were off to Wellington located four hours drive south. With blue skies for our day's travel we stuck to the coast road, aptly named the Surf Highway, as much as we could ducking down numerous promising side tracks to unbelievably good secluded surf beaches.
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| One of the many great breaks on the Surf Highway |
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| Looking out from a lookout |
Each little beach at the end of the road had its mandatory surf van parked there with its owner usually on the phone trying to entice a mate to come and surf with them. Finally we arrived at Wellington and at our AirBnB home perched 300 metres above the harbour. The views are just incredible. They overlook the harbour to Wellington City and its airport to the left. When at home we just watch international and domestic planes landing and taking off, shipping sailing in and out of the harbour and the spectacular scenery below us.
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| View from our AirBnB house |
With good weather forecast for the next two days, we were somewhat surprised to wake up to overcast skies, wind and rain - well we weren't really surprised as the weather here is quite unpredictable as we've already found out and it did clear up later on. With only three nights here and not really being city travellers at all, we drove to Te Papa, the national museum, and spent half a day wandering its halls followed by a good seafood lunch overlooking the harbour. Arriving home mid-afternoon I relieved the air traffic controllers at the airport and the head porter at the Port Authority for a few hours as numerous planes took off and landed in the distance and ships floated in and out of the harbour below.
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| Drinks for Air Traffic Controller and Head Porter |
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| Beautiful day in Wellington |
Next day the weather was absolutely stunning with clear skies, no wind and cool. We were out and about after the peak hour morning traffic had stopped and reversed into it's parking spot. It was a day of lookouts, headland walks and great food. Seldom visited Wrights Lookout has an enormous WWII gun emplacement there protecting the stunning views over Wellington City and harbour. Down to the water's edge we then went to walk the beautiful coastal headlands.
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| Wrights Lookout over Wellington |
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| WWII gun emplacement at Wright's Lookout |
Fortunately there was a great cafe there too so we first walked into that as well. Walking out of the cafe and along the Esplanade for an hour or so we were amazed at the innovative architecture used to capture the views while hiding from the wild windy weather Wellington is noted for.
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| Esplanade walk, Houghton's Bay |
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| House with lift from carpark |
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| Air Force flyby in our honour |
Lunch was planned to be held at the number 1 of over a thousand restaurants in Wellington, the Larder. I had high hopes of sitting at a table covered in white linen that was covered with silver implements I didn't understand their purpose. The waiter would call me "Sir" and the credit card would melt in the machine when I paid. We found the restaurant located in the back blocks of a nondescript suburb and around we drove up every street radiating out over a kilometer in every direction and not a carpark was to be found. Giving up we started to head home for lunch when I spied a carpark and within walking distance. The restaurant is a typical corner setup with wooden tables, with in and outsdie seating options with overflow seating on the footpath and nothing much else. The place was packed with a 20 minute wait for an inside table. We jagged a highly prized footpath table and watched the locals post letters and catch buses as we waited for our food order. The food was simple but outstanding. When finished I went to pay and stood in a queue with 10+ people in front of me waiting to pay and it wasn't very expensive at all!
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| Sitting at coveted table on footpath at The Larder |
A visit to Mount Victoria Lookout on the way home ended our sightseeing in Wellington. I had the afternoon off from being aircraft controller and head porter which allowed Julie and I to spend the afternoon enjoying the stunning views from our house.
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| View from Mt Victoria |
Tomorrow is Moving Day: we are off to Napier in the Hawkes Bay wine region in the centre east of the north island. So this is a good time to end this post.
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| Sunset from our AirBnB in Wellington |
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| Back of bus in Wellington |
We are both well and thoroughly enjoying our travels in New Zealand.
The Grey Gonads - JeffnJulie
The overnight storms and heavy rain obviously came this way earlier too as there were at least 40+ rockfalls on the road, fallen trees, numerous patches of water over the road, as well as mud washouts and heaps of earlier landslides on the precipitous roads that had taken out half of them (these had been temporarily made safe by a few witches hats and red plastic safety fencing by authorities). It was with great relief to have safely negotiated the Highway and enter the normal roads around New Plymouth. 
Lunch was planned to be held at the number 1 of over a thousand restaurants in Wellington, the Larder. I had high hopes of sitting at a table covered in white linen that was covered with silver implements I didn't understand their purpose. The waiter would call me "Sir" and the credit card would melt in the machine when I paid. We found the restaurant located in the back blocks of a nondescript suburb and around we drove up every street radiating out over a kilometer in every direction and not a carpark was to be found. Giving up we started to head home for lunch when I spied a carpark and within walking distance. The restaurant is a typical corner setup with wooden tables, with in and outsdie seating options with overflow seating on the footpath and nothing much else. The place was packed with a 20 minute wait for an inside table. We jagged a highly prized footpath table and watched the locals post letters and catch buses as we waited for our food order. The food was simple but outstanding. When finished I went to pay and stood in a queue with 10+ people in front of me waiting to pay and it wasn't very expensive at all!
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