After the great walk in Tongariro National Park we headed west towards Mt Taranaki. On our route we drove on the Forgotten World Highway, the road between Taumarunui and Stratford. The drive winds through green hilly bush country and passes many historic and quirky sights. The strangest sight was passing through Whangamomona, New Zealand´s only republic- it became so after disagreements with local councils. We were welcomed back to New Zealand after driving through! We also stopped off at the highest waterfall in the North Island.
After about 4 hours we arrived at the base of the incredible Mt Taranaki- a 2,518m snow capped volcanic cone that dominates the landscape- it is amazing! We drove all around the mountain along the Surf Highway and had to stop every half an hour just to gaze up at the monstrosity! The Surf Highway had a lot of lovely beaches dotted along it which we stopped at, and then ended up in New Plymouth, the bustling city hub of the Taranaki region.
We spent a night and a day in New Plymouth, unfortunately in the rain, and then started to make our way back up to Auckland to pick up Tom who was arriving in from Thailand. We passed through the Sheep Shearing Capital of the World where there was a giant sheep shearer!
After a lovely evening with the Sticklands in Pukekohe, we met Tom at the airport- it was fantastic to see him!! We spent a few days around Auckland sorting him out with a car and other bits and bobs and then left to make our way to the west coast beach of Raglan, just west of Hamilton.
It was supposed to be a 2 hour drive from Auckland, but ended up taking us 7 hours. Chris and I were driving the van in front, Tom following and after about an hour or so we realised Tom wasn´t behind us any more...we had a feeling something was wrong so drove back and realised we´d driven about 10 minutes without him following ..whoops! It was a complete disaster- poor Tom´s new car broke down...the radiator burst and then caused the engine to pretty much die. It was such bad luck- he´d literally bought the car the day before and had a mechanical check all clear on it! So the car was towed to a local mechanic and stayed there to be mended for a week! Luckily we have 3 seats in the van, so Tom bought a tent and we made our way to Raglan, one car down!
Raglan was lovely- we stayed in our first camp-site (we have previously not paid for even one nights accommodation!!) which was just on the beach and the weather was great.
The boys enjoyed football on the beach, and we cooked some lovely dinners in the evenings! Next on the agenda was the Napier over on the East Coast...
After about 4 hours we arrived at the base of the incredible Mt Taranaki- a 2,518m snow capped volcanic cone that dominates the landscape- it is amazing! We drove all around the mountain along the Surf Highway and had to stop every half an hour just to gaze up at the monstrosity! The Surf Highway had a lot of lovely beaches dotted along it which we stopped at, and then ended up in New Plymouth, the bustling city hub of the Taranaki region.
We spent a night and a day in New Plymouth, unfortunately in the rain, and then started to make our way back up to Auckland to pick up Tom who was arriving in from Thailand. We passed through the Sheep Shearing Capital of the World where there was a giant sheep shearer!
Raglan was lovely- we stayed in our first camp-site (we have previously not paid for even one nights accommodation!!) which was just on the beach and the weather was great.
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