Week 6 - 27th October

Tuesday Oct 27th, 2009

We had a wicked rain storm last night and we thought the rain was coming inside the building. We slept in this morning. We try the new grapefruits, but are not too impressed and they are not quite as sweet as the ones from Annette’s tree.

The sun is trying to shine, but it is still raining slightly and we can see the remnants of the rain last night. The creeks and rivers are swollen with rain water and in one place the water was right up to the edge of the road.

Flat whites at the Mission Belle Cafe brought a pleasant surprise. It is owned by an ex school principal who retired and now runs the café. Her dining room is covered in quilts which were truly beautiful.

In Foxton, where it was extermely windy, there is a Dutch windmill in the centre of town.

We find the road into Wellington, the Hutt Valley actually, very blustery as we have a hard time keeping the car on the road. We are staying in a backpacker's lodge tonight, a cabin room with shared kitchen, bathrooms and tv room.

Tonight we had dinner with a New Zealander farmer, Clint Webber, from up Wanganui way...that was quite interesting ... will have dinner with him again tomorrow. He had lots of stories about farming sheep, herding sheep on horse back and breaking in horses for the back country.

Week 6 - 26th Oct

Monday Oct 26th, 2009

We are heading to Wanganui today.

The mountain is shrouded in cloud this morning so it’s difficult to believe that there is a giant lurking under that veiled cloak. The last time this giant erupted was 250 years ago and there is no sign of it stirring this morning, thank goodness! Despite the clouds around the mountain, the sun is shining. Behind us the clouds around the mountain move. Alan stops to catch a photo.

Our first stop is outside the town of Hawera, at the Tawhiti Museum. This heritage museum is owned by artists Nigel and Theresa Ogle. They bought the 70 yr old Tawhiti Cheese factory with the idea of turning it into a museum, to show history of South Taranaki. All the displays use both life size exhibits and scale models to capture the past in super-realistic settings. The life size figures are cast from molds of real people and are designed and built on the premises. The smaller figurines are painstakingly sculpted in wax before a mold is made. The displays are original, thought provoking and unlike anything we have seen before. This was certainly a worthwhile stop. They also have the largest collection of tractors I have ever seen. I can’t remember what kind of tractor we had as kids!

Our picnic place is Patea Beach and we take the road to the beach, not sure of what we are going to find. The road passes a golf course and there are lots of sheep on this course chasing those little white balls all over the grass. We find the road that says lookout and take it to the most beautiful bluff overlooking the Tasman Sea.

The shore line is riddled with coves each one worth exploring but the tide is in and we can’t afford the time to spend waiting for it to recede before wandering down the beach. Low tide is at 10:15 tonight!

We drove around to the shore. The beach is black iron oxide sand blown into dunes down the shore. It looks muddy at the shore as the sea churns up the sand as the wave’s crash on the beach. We watch a fellow land a nice sized fish off the pier. The water must be warmer as there is a crowd of children swimming.

Week 5 - 22nd to 25th Oct

Sunday Oct 25th, 2009
Puke Ariki museum is an artistic building close to the water, in the centre of New Plymouth. This museum begins with an award winning movie on its community, the bottom floor dedicated to photography, a second floor on the history of the community and finally a third floor on the historic perspective of the Maori people. They had Maori artifacts that farmers had dug up in their fields. It was hard to believe these wooden carvings survived.

Between the museum and the sea is an interesting feature, a kinetic sculpture, called the Wind Wand. Standing at 45 meters in height it sways with the wind. The artist, Len Lye, created this instillation for the millennium. At night it can be seen from quite a distance as it has over 1296 light bulbs in it.

Pukekura Park is the city’s premier park. It is situated nearly in the middle of town with a large pond at its centre and intersecting paths all through it. Alan and I enjoyed the azalea and rhododendron show.

This garden was packed with delightful mini-gardens in the trees and paths everywhere. The best part was the fern gardens, there were paths throughout the ferns and orchids with tunnels and stairways leading to other gardens. It was such fun!

This water sculpture is called Aoteoroa - The land of the long white cloud by artist MD Smither, 2007

We finished the day by taking an evening tramp across styles and through sheep meadows to a river bed leading to a small lake. From there we crossed another style and ran across a golf course. We weren’t sure if we were suppose to be there! But, there was a style. Crossing the final style we head onto the coastal walkway. It is over 7 km long running past the centre of town to the harbor on the other side. We don’t have to go that far. A trail leading to the sea was the best route to the shore. We scrambled over the dunes covered in grasses and through thorny gorse to the sand. It was getting quite dark and we stumbled along the shore as it was black sand with black round rocks on it. The town sparkled in the distance. What a great night for a walk along the shore.

It is a beautiful night to walk the shore.

We finally eat our cherimoya. This fruit is very good…we will have to buy another. The seeds are the size of almonds. (Thurs 22nd Oct)

Saturday Oct 24th, 2009
Today is the local farmers market. Thank goodness we decided to drive, it was such a long way from the camp, also hard to find. The market consisted of many small garage sales, like an English boot sale, plant sales and a few selling vegetables. The setting was beautiful, in a small ravine the market was on different levels of the road.

It is a small valley with a beautiful stream that flows through the middle. The buildings around the edges are built on piers right over the middle of the river and somehow they managed to stack a parking area in the same location.

We head towards the downtown core. The downtown of New Plymouth is a beautiful city with modern stores, a spectacular waterfront, and a boardwalk that runs from the port in the south to past Fitzroy in the North. Most of the board walk is at the edge of the sea with large stones protecting the shoreline. In the background is Mount Taranaki, providing a spectacular setting for a city.

The board walk begins at the harbor.

We start at Kawaroa Park where the actual walk begins. This seems to be a popular place as we meet joggers, bikers, skateboarders, strollers and roller-skates.

At Te Henui stream the fishermen fish for white bait using both

dip nets and set nets in the stream. They don’t appear to be having much luck as a dog is swimming in the steam chasing the ducks.

A little boy and his Mum show me a family of ducks with brand new goslings. They were protecting their babies from the swooping sea gulls.

These two children reminded me of Andrew and Lisa when they were little, at the lake shore in Kincardine. They ran in and out with each wave!

Alan found these little crabs on the rocks, sunning themselves!

In the evening we drive up to mount Egmont Mountain. We stop at the visitor’s centre at the base of the mountain. The mountain is almost out of the clouds as we wait for a while. It is quite cold here. Maybe tomorrow we will get a clear view of the mountain.

Friday Oct 23rd, 2009

Our next destination is New Plymouth. The traffic is heavier today as everyone is on vacation. It is the Labour Day weekend. We stop in Pirongia for a break of coffee. The land is quite flat here. Lots of small farms.

At Otorohanga, we stop here at Woolworths for groceries. We have our picnic in a park at Piopio. Today we have ham sandwiches for a change. Peanut butter and honey is our main lunch sandwich when we travel.

Further on the highway changes from rolling farm land to mountainous switch backs, ravines, gulleys and rock out croppings. It is quite beautiful here. This is a coastal road that provides glimpses of the Tasman sea with large cliffs.

As we arrive in New Plymouth, we can see Mount Taranaki in the distance. It is huge, majestic, mountain that stands out way above everything else on the horizon.

We settle into the backpackers lodge here in New Plymouth. Alan met a fella across the road from us, Joe Houston and his old Ford van, now converted into a diesel truck for pulling around his fifth wheel trailer. He started from scratch, modified the frame, motor, hydraulics, extra floating axle and all the bells and whistles. Then he picked up the fifth wheel trailer called Okanogan and it is made in Canada. He pulls it around NZ with his truck. He has real talent for fabrication.

Alan mashed two of the avocados and we ate them with salsa and nacho chips. It is very hard to find plain nacho chips here.

Close by is the beach. Alan and I walk down there after supper. There is a six km path along the shore that takes you into the downtown. The beach is fine, fine, fine black sand. It flows softly through your hands. This beach also has rocks strewn all over. They are rounded by the movement of the water and are also black. We met a couple who were just coming from their swim. They made a pact last year, to swim each day in the sea. They are eight months along in this and are glad the weather and sea are getting warmer.

Thursday Oct 22nd, 2009

This fruit, a cherimoya we bought in Kerikeri and is almost ready to eat. It is a type of custard apple with the flavor of pineapple and banana. I can’t wait to try it. Our avocados are almost ready too!!

Tomorrow we are heading south to New Plymouth. We have to book our ferry tickets here in Auckland as the car rental agency will pay half of the price. Our cost is $260 for a return trip with the discount.

For lunch today we went to Pinati’s Keke Pua ‘A in Otahuhu to try Moira and Davey’s steamed pork buns. Moira invited us into the back of the restaurant and she served us lunch of steamed pork buns, lamb buns, creamed coconut buns, German buns and banana buns. I ate them despite the gluten. Boy were they delicious! Actually, I tasted each type and Alan ate both his and finished mine.

Moira explained that many people come from far and wide to sample her steamed buns. This is authentic Samoan food and quite a busy spot as these buns are very popular.

Barbecued flavored ground pork and onion filling is surrounded by dough, and then steamed. They are served hot. These buns are not browned, but pure white. All the other buns are deep fried. I think Lamb is my favorite. Moira sent us off with a good supply of buns for later.