Blogs from Taranaki, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 3

Patea - a tiny town in South Taranaki that the saying "Blink and you will miss it" was written for. But it is worth taking the time to stop and explore this friendly little town and all it has to offer visitors. - My favourite spot is Mana Bay. A fantastic bay to paddle or swim in. A quick walk over the sand dunes and you are on another beach with its own shipwreck, the SS Waitangi. The shipwreck has a habit of covering itself with sand but is easily spotted from the top of the sand dunes or the lookout above. There are bbqs nearby, great fishing in the river, a campground (http://www.pateamotorcamp.com/#!home/mainPage) to stay in but PLEASE take note of the sign warning how dangerous walking on the wall can be. It is a ... read more

We set off from Wellington to Taranaki on Thurs 24th Jan on a miserable, grey day which was ideally suited to our long, boring drive ahead of us.... over 320km to New Plymouth....& not a lot to see. This section of New Zealand is probably the most un-interesting, just flat boring farm land. We were making our way to stay with Annie's friend Catherine in new Plymouth the following day and also wanted to get somewhere near to Mount Taranaki. Annie & Catherine worked together in Japan, India & Singapore! We stopped a couple of times and considered where we would be staying the night but decided to crack on and get most of the journey done in one trip. Eventually we stopped in a small town called Stratford which was quite appropiate because Annie had ... read more

Left Stratford at around 10am to drive to Mt Taranaki it had rained during the night and everything was fresh. It took around half an hour to get there I stopped a few times along the route to take some photos of the dormant volcano that is Mt Taranaki. It's just really beautiful, topped with snow it looks like something from a fairy tale. As the road meandered towards the mountain it got narrower and narrower, panic set in for a few seconds then I saw there was another car in the mirror, whew. The first walk took me to Wilkies pools a series of pools that the water has carved from hundreds of years of erosion. Following that I did a walk to Dawsons Falls where the water cascades about eighty feet to the rocks ... read more

25. Oktober, in New Plymouth (Maori: Taranaki) Nach der langen Fahrt gestern, hat Christine noch das Nachtessen zubereitet – herzlichen Dank an dieser Stelle an Christine für’s Kochen und für’s Wäsche waschen – wir schätzen das sehr! Und auch Willi sei gedankt, für sein frühes Aufstehen und das z’Morgevorbereiten und für’s Geschirrwaschen J Ja, auch das gehört zu langen Ferien, aber mit gegenseitiger Unterstützung und Abwechslung passt das trotzdem gut in’s entspannte Ferienleben. Das Wetter, ja das Wetter meint es gut mit uns. Auch heute ist es sonnig; etwas windig und manchmal bewölkt, aber gut für unsere beabsichtigten Aktivitäten. Die grossartigen Rhododendrongärten von Pukeiti, an den Hängen des erloschenen Vulkans Mt. Taranaki (Mt. Egmond) sind heute Ziel unseres Ausflugs. Nach einer kürzeren Fahrt entlang der Westküste - mit Pause am schwarzsandigen Strand de... read more

Wow endlich nach 5 Wochen (oder sogar mehr?) hab ich es geschafft mir einen Blog einzurichten. Da das Internet auf meinem Laptop leider nicht funktioniert muss ich mich immer am Schulcomputer einloggen. Deswegen werden die meisten blogeintraege manchmal etwas spaet kommen aber besser spaet als nie. Nach dem Mittagessen, Toast (yuck), das in ca 5 min beginnt werde ich mich einem weiteren Blogeintrag widmen und versuchen Bilder der letzten Wochen hochzuladen. In der kurzen Zeit habe ich hier schon ziemlich viel erlebt, Schnee, heisse Quellen, mein erstes eigenes Auto, Tiere auf der Fahrbahn usw. Liebste Gruesse Judy von der anderen Seite der Welt :)... read more