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.
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