New Plymouth / Mount Taranaki

Driving down the coast, we came to our home base for the next three nights in New Plymouth. Mount Taranaki is often shrouded in clouds and it was somewhat clear, so we snapped as many photos as we could.

We had some time before check-in, so decided to walk the York Railway Loop, at the foothills of the Mount.

The next day, after having perfect weather, it became “iffy” at this stage. We were lucky with only light showers on our first full day, so did all the “must do” outdoor activities we could fit in.

We headed to the backside of Taranaki and drove up the road to the trailheads for Dawson Falls and Wilkie’s Pool Loop walks. The drive to the trailhead carpark took us through a tree tunnel. There is a very distinct demarcation between the open farmland and the greenery of the park. Taranaki is a volcano that last erupted in 1854 and the soil is very rich. Dawson Falls did not disappoint and there were several others there. The walk to Wilkie’s Pool was extremely lush, with lichens and mosses on every surface. However, the pools themselves were a bit disappointing.

We headed back to the south end of New Plymouth and climbed up Paritutu Rock. There are chains bolted into the rock the last 80 feet or so to pull yourself up. The views were great on one side and we saw island rocks and paddleboarders. The other side’s view is of the refinery.

We headed to the the north end of town and walked a section of the Coastal Walkway. Something I had really hoped to do was rent bikes and ride the Coastal Walkway. We mentioned this to our host at the B&B we stayed at and she had bikes for us to use. But it was really windy when we set out that morning. It would have been an unpleasant ride. Our walk went past an estuary with lots of birdlife and past the Te Rewa Rewa Bridge. The bridge is shaped like a wave or whale skeleton. If it is a clear day and you position yourself right, you can frame Mount Taranaki inside it. Well darn it if Mt Taranaki was hiding at this opportune photo moment, only to appear when returning to our car!

We never saw the Mount in perfect clarity, but did manage several shots of her. Half the time there would be so many clouds, you would never even know there was a mountain there!

An overnight downpour and very high winds were upon us the 2nd day. We headed off to The Garden Shed Chocolate Studio, a coffee/chocolate shop I heard about in a nearby town. They were just opening and the woman was very apologetic about how few chocolates were available. The week had been very damp and not good chocolate-making weather. We selected half a dozen and were then invited to walk the gardens behind the shop. They were very pretty and I’m glad we were invited to stroll them.

Back in town, we walked to the Len Lye Gallery. It’s free, and very different – even the outside. There is lots of focus on movement and sound.

We decided to drive out to Cape Egmont lighthouse. It was blowing so hard I had to hang onto a fence post to hold the camera steady! Funny how the photo I took of the lighthouse doesn’t give you any sense of how windy it was, but take a look at the sea behind me!

Then we drove another side road and walked through some pastures, onto the beach to view the Gairloch shipwreck. The weird part was that when we were at the lighthouse and it was blowing so hard, we nixed the idea of walking the beach to Gairloch shipwreck. Who wants to be sand-blasted? But as we drove northward, we encountered a rain shower and then the wind just stopped – completely! It was long enough for us to walk the beach to Gairloch, so about an hour. Then the wind picked up again. The eye of the storm?

We finished up with lunch at Okorukoru Winery. We had hoped to go wine-tasting there, but they only offered a flight of 4 wines with lunch. Since they only had 1 red in the flight, we declined and I ordered a glass instead. Sadly, I didn’t care for it. But lunch was nice and we had a window table with ocean views.