Taranaki Part 3: New Plymouth

A continuation of my trip to Taranaki, this entry is primarily about New Plymouth. This is the primary city in the region of Taranaki, out on the Western coast of New Zealand's North Island. I wasn't really expecting much (not much of a city person) but really enjoyed my short stay here. The beach front is beautiful, and the tourist center combines the city's large museum & library. Hoefully I'll be able to go back at some time. I don't have a great many pictures of the city, but I've bought a few books about the region which I'll be sending to my mother soon, and I'm sure she'll be happily showing anyone who visits.

I didn't have time to visit the local parks, only spent a small time at the beach, and spent the time on the city looking at the museum. I'll give you some details of what I learnt there later, but for now I thought you'd like to see the HUGE rock that sits on the water front. This stands high above the city, allowing views far out over the region, out across the Tasman sea, and across to the mountain. The climb to the top of this bastion isn't easy and involves a decent section of rock climbing near the summit (wouldn't be allowed in the UK, Health & Safety gone made!)

This is the rock, from the bottom

And this is the route I undertook, with a few steps and chains to help get up

There were some phenomenal views on the way up, including the port, the city, and the mountain

At the top was a beautiful view of the coast

Finally, I'll leave you with a weird thing that was at the top, a Trig Point that has been rigorously adorned with birds

Nearly forgot the one thing I did take pictures of in New Plymouth- glowing chairs! They were in the museum's cinema, made of translucent plastic, with constantly changing internal lights. I want one!

Taranaki: Part 2, York Road Loop Track

Hello! It seems to have been a while since Part 1 (and its still not finished fully) but I'm afraid we've been quite busy here, and there's no signs of it getting quieter. With this in mind, however, I've decided that I should really be posting something (anything) at a regular time slot. Therefore I will be attempting to post an update each week by Sunday evening NZ time (so it'll be up Sunday morning UK, Saturday night USA) - I wrote this last night, posting didn't go ahead as I got invited to the pub have way through. Sorry, priorities.

Before I get into this tale properly I should probably make you aware of ANZAC day. This is Australia & New Zealand's equivalent of Rememberance Sunday, except that it's a public holiday (great idea), and the Aussies use it to get HAMMERED whilst playing games- to the confusion of some of the Kiwi News teams. This year it was a big event as it was 100 years since the landings on Gallipoli, the founding campaign of the ANZACs (though NZ forces had been used by the British Empire previously in such regions as South Africa).  They do a dawn service at local memorials- people arrive about 5-6am then there's a parade and a remembrance service, including bag pipes (there's a lot of bagpipes here, more than Edinburgh!) and a salute with guns (Wouldn't be allowed in the UK, I'm sure. They were using 303's too, the main infantry rifle used by the Empire at the time). Afterwards there was a few speeches by the mayor, an air force officer (there's a large air base locally) and a local school pupil. All very nice. Oh, and there was free rum & coffee. At 6am. Free. Rum & coffee- together, mixed. Great idea! Tasted like chewy molasses. I'll try do more about the ANZACs for post later, when I have the time it deserves. There's a special exhibit in Wellington about them, so might go see that and get some proper information before I start trying too hard. Was a fantastic day and very well organised by the whole country, as well as the events that occured with the Australians and Turkish at the ceremony in Gallipoli- and event I hope was publicised internationally.

So, back to the beautiful long weekend I had out west, this time moving onto the Sunday

I began that morning, as previously discussed, waking half way up a volcano. This happens quite a lot in NZ. For the Sunday I had decided to travel down to the simple, low level, walk that follows the route of an old rail line which serviced a quarry and rock crushing plant. 

This quarry, 100 years ago, produced the "metal" used to create the region's first roads. In New Zealand not all roads are have tarmac- there are some places quite out of the way here, and only a few people go to certain places, such as certain farms and starts of tracks. These roads instead are "metalled". Its not metal though, its simply called than. Really its just a covering of those little grey stones they use on normal roads without the tarmac to stick it together. It makes for a reasonable surface- not great, but good enough for tracks and the like. Before larger scale operations and protected statuses, though, "metal" was quarried from various sites, and this place was one of the major sites. 

Below are pictures of the signs about the track at its entrance- I hope you can make something of them, if you click on them you'll get them at full size. In addition I've included the old cart that is at the entrance of the site.

Below are the 11 videos I made at various sites along the track. Most of the explanations are in the videos about the various sites.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAVtIG5pWkc&list=PLCFbtK9Mpf6of27-tpNOqYqyvFtff7GQR

Finally, I just thought I'd show you some of the beautiful sites along the track- it was simply a nice day out.

This is the coloured water as described in the video "Hill Stream"