We arrived in New Zealand on January 13th, after a somewhat restless flight to Auckland and uneventful onward connection to Wellington, where we were met by my sisters, Margaret and Tricia.
The cartoon in the local Dominion Post newspaper was poking fun at Donald Trump, and was very apropos after Trump's recent comments.
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| Dominion Post cartoon |
Te Papa (Museum of New Zealand) is currently hosting a Lego exhibition, and so we took the opportunity to be kids again and go to see the exhibition. There were lots of building opportunities for the "kids", and lots of wonderfully detailed Lego constructions. My favourite was the Flying Scotsman train, which took 217 hours and more than 164,000 pieces of Lego to build. Unfortunately the exhibition will have ended before our grandchildren visit Wellington in late March.
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| The Flying Scotsman in Lego |
On January 24th, Marlene, Margaret and I set off for a week in New Plymouth. Marlene and I lived in New Plymouth for a short while in 1978, and although we have visited briefly a few times since, we had not spent any significant time there.
New Plymouth sits on the West coast, half way up the North Island of New Zealand in the shadow of Mount Taranaki, a dormant volcanic cone, which last erupted in 1775. The original European settlement, in the 1840s, was on the flattish land, adjacent to the coast, but over time the city has spread up the many valleys, toward Mount Taranaki. The result is a system of roads that all lead towards town, but with fewer roads going over the hills that separate the valleys, making travel within the city somewhat circuitous, compared to the common grid of North-South and East-West roads that we are used to. Within a few days I had it figured out, but we still had to do a few u-turns.
Our accommodation was in a basement walkout suite, below the house of Harry and Mila, which we booked through the Holiday Houses website. Harry and Mila were very welcoming, and we learned that Harry is originally from Castlegar, BC....small world.
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| Mt. Taranaki from our back window |
The forefathers of New Plymouth did a great job of protecting natural areas within and nearby the city, so in addition to the fabulous 50 hectare Pukekura Park, which was established as early as 1876, there are many other reserves, gardens, and walkways that follow the streams which meander down the various valleys. Needless to say, we visited many of them, and with one exception (the privately owned Te Kainga Marire) they are free of charge, as are the museum, the art gallery and the zoo. Kudos to the New Plymouth City Council. There is also a 13 km coastal path for walking and cycling, which begins at the port and extends to Bell Block. All of these amenities I am sure contributed to New Plymouth being named the world's most liveable city in 2009, in the 20,000-75,000 population category.
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| Meeting of The Waters - Waiwhakaiho River |
We were fortunate to be in town for the last week of the Festival of Lights, during which a large portion of Pukekura Park is lit up at night with masses of coloured lights. Again, free admission.
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| Mount Taranaki from Pukekura Park at dusk |
We enjoyed an evening stroll along Oakura Beach, taking advantage of the cool sea breeze on a warm evening.
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| Marlene about to get a wet butt at Oakura Beach |
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| Sunset at Back Beach |
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| Fish & Chips at Ngamotu Beach, as kiwi as........ |
As it was near 30 degrees each day, we did most of our daytime walking in areas with a good canopy of trees, including several walks in Pukekura Park, which is also home to the Brooklands Zoo and a sound shell for outdoor concerts, etc. On one visit we saw a group of 6 ducklings at the edge of the pond, under the watchful eye of their mother.
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| Ducklings at Pukekura Park |
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| A cheeky dry cleaning advertisement |
