21st February 2014 - - New Plymouth

Last day to finish looking around New Plymouth. Off home tomorrow.

The Dawson Motel where we will have stayed for three nights after tonight.  Our room is upstairs first on the right room 12. Very nice sea view out the back, mountain view out the front.

Our room

First stop today was to go and look at the port where Dave used to work.

Port in the distance with boat harbour in front.

Coast south of the port. What another great day so calm no wind which I always thought was unusual for New Plymouth.

Just look at that sea. 

Behind Paritutu Rock. Climb up and get a birds eye view of New Plymouth.

City side of Paritutu rock. We were watching some people climbing up the side, looked hard work. They were really hanging on. Too hot for us to try that, especially as there was no wind to cool you down.It looks a lot higher than this shot indicates.

These photos are of Pukekura Park Gardens. Nice to have a walk around here in the cool of the trees. Lovely Park, great for mums to take the kids. Huge playground, zoo, tea house and nice walks. Ducks in the pond rush over to you when you go near the edge of the pool expecting to be fed. Taranaki  is known for its gardening with its rich volcanic soil.

The fountain changes as you walk round the pond.

Walking round the pave ways in the park. Great old tree. (Not PT)

Looking back over the pond to the tearooms. All very pretty.

Quaint bridge you walk over at the end of the pond. to get back to the tearooms. Nice reflections.

Later in the morning the cloud came down around the mountain which happens often while in town along the coast it was brilliant sunshine. This photo was taken on the North road up the mountain which is the highest of the three accesses. 950m above sea level. Under that cloud is the mountain taken just to show how the cloud wraps itself round the top. 

Back down to the coast to walk some of, the great award winning coastal 9.5km walkways, running from  Port Taranaki to the suburb of Bell Block. A paved promenade  that you can walk, jog, cycle or skate.

As above you can see the wide pavement that goes all the way along the coast. Very pleasant to walk especially on a day like today.

Above is the Wind Wond which stands 45m and bends and bows to the frickle sea breezes. At the top is a red light. We only saw it during the day but the light must look good on a breezy night.

Further along the coast

PT, the birds and me enjoying the view.

 Coming across a little sand with the rock.

A small estuary

Port in the background. A little further along the beach became very sandy where everyone swims but somehow forgot to take a photo of the surf swimming beach.

 Got back into the car and drove down to this part of the walkway. We had to drive through town and around a small lake to get to the Te Rewa Rewa bridge. Just looked spectacular against the blue sky. Its meant to look like a wave, which it does.

We have come to the end of our five day trip down to this part of the West coast. New Plymouth a great place do get out and do all the walks in the Egmont National Park and the Coastal Walkway, especially with this weather we were so lucky to have for the whole five days.

Also really enjoyed Raglan a great area spread out from the town to along the three bays along the coast. It was a nice quiet relaxing place.

It was great to come to an area that I hadn't been to before we both enjoyed it.

Leaving tomorrow morning for home arriving back early afternoon. Back to reality.  Over and out.

20th February, 2014 A circuit south of New Plymouth and around Mt.Egmont/Taranaki

Another great fine sunny day but a little misty, so calm and no wind to blow the mist away.

We got away about 9.00am to do the circuit around the outskirts of New Plymouth and the mountain. 

We had another long day not arriving back to the motel until 4.30pm driving 234kms.

We headed south of the city down the west coast towards Oakura. looking back at Mt Egmont/Taranaki but as you can see in the above photo it was quite misty.

The beach at Oakura looking back at the New Plymouth, looking into the morning sun.

Above and below more of Oakura Beach.

Nice  homes on cliff tops

A little further along the coast.

Just south of Warea went out to the coast again and found this very rocky bay with good facilities for launching boats.

This lighthouse is just next to the boat ramp but is out of use now as they decided it wasn't in the right place. It was build in 1864 and by 2000 they decided to replace it a little further south down the coast.

Bay in front of the lighthouse

This is the replacement lighthouse

We have now arrived at Opunake looking over the beach. You can see the sea fog coming in from the sea. We heard in the news that Wellington airport was closed as they were having this fog as well. Fortunately it didn't last long and didn't seem to go further north up the coast.

..

Now down on the beach. We had a coffee then headed inland  to go into Egmont National Park.

As we were driving inland we could get some good views of the mountain as the clouds had now cleared. What a great sight.

Driving into the Egmont National Park. Very pretty native bush drive. The area is called Dawsons Falls.

Still driving up through the park, now looking up at the mountain

 We are now up as far as we can drive.

Zoomed in photo from the same spot as previous shot.

A handsome couple of tourist getting ready to climb up higher to Wilkies Pools.

On our hike of 1km through this beautiful area. No steps just this well kept pathway, although in this heat and no wind it probably felt steeper than it was although we were always going up.

On our way up.

Still going mountain getting nearer.

At last we arrived at Wilkies Pools. We had a nice cold drink from the pools.

Looking back down where the pools flow.

Walked back down to the carpark and a little further down the road we stopped to do the trail down to Dawson's Falls.

The falls were 18 mtrs high and I walked down to the bottom where I am standing to take the photo. Hard work as the steps were really steep. I was so hot by the time I got back. I sure had plenty of exercise today Just like the stairs we climbed back at Raglan. No wonder I have saw calf muscles.

Driving back down through the park. Note how they have put the road around the tree in the middle. Audi coming through.

We decided to drive to Eltham where they have a cheese factory.Brought a few cheeses through their outlet shop and some crackers and thought we would have a late lunch. Didn't get round to eating just kept going and realised when we got back to the hotel about 4.00ish we would then have them with a drink at 5.00pm so rather late lunch. 

Drove on through Stratford, the clock tower  on the side of the main street.

Just further on from Stratford drove up through another road up the mountain. This one went higher. We zigzaged up the steep road. This is where they come up to ski. Great day to see it all on a day like this, as in the morning a few clouds moved in around the mountain with a little mist which cleared.

I walked out to a look out platform through the bush to see all the fog further south, this was probably what

Wellington was getting today. Thank goodness it didn't come up our way.

Looking back from the platform to the mountain.

Looking the other way down the valley of the mountain.

We went over some more gravel road earlier today but we took it through a car wash this afternoon..

The car after it went over the Forgotten World Highway. What a mess.

After dinner went for a walk along a small part of the coastal walkway, just down in front of our Motel. Tide out not a very attractive waterfront for a city. Tomorrow we will go along the northern end which should be better.

We have planned another busy day tomorrow. I keep forgetting to post pictures of our Motel here. Nice and modern only a couple of years old.