New Plymouth

We are slowly getting things sorted for our trip down south and one of those things on our list was to visit our son and daughter in law down in New Plymouth. We left Takanini on Friday 16th Nov and had a liesurely drive to Urenui about 40 km out from NP and booked into the Seaview Motel. Lovely motel, can recommend it.

We stopped at Te Kuiti on the way down to admire the statue of Colin Meads. Definitely one of my favourite rugby players of my youth. Always remember him running with the ball in one hand and on one occasion playing on with a broken arm.

Judy and I had a wee explore from our motel, going down to the beach and back up through the streets. Spotted this sculpture outside someones drive. Had to take a picture.

The next morning was a short drive into NP and a visit to the Tupare gardens. Unfortunatly the Rhododendrum flowering season was past its best, but still enough to admire. Will have to come back another year and spend a week here in our caravan.

We picked up our son and daughter in law after we had a good look around and headed off to another garden, Pukeiti, which was in the bush line of  Mt Taranaki. Another good garden to visit but quite different from Tupare. No pictures. One above is Tupare.

In the evening we went out to dinner at Gengy’s and back to our motel in NP for coffee and a sit on the veranda and watch the birds in the adjacent bush. Then it was time to say goodbye to Matt and Terina. We won’t be seeing them for over a year.

In the morning we set off in the rain for a drive around the coast from NP to Hawera, up to Stratford and back to Waitara. Thus completing a circunnavigation of the mountain and then back to Takanini and home.

Not every day is a good day to see Mt Taranaki or Mt Egmont as it once was called.