Volcano Country

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Today we set off for New Plymouth. Along the way we stopped at Wanganui. It was a sleepy little town with nothing to do so we carried on up the coast road. After stopping off in a few places along the way we eventually got into New Plymouth. The town looks very strange on the map. Right slap bang in the centre is I giant dormant volcano called Mount Taranaki and then all the roads head off from the volcano towards the coast.

Yet again we were unlucky with the hostel. It was like walking into a cub camp. The eating and cooking area was inside a huge breeze block building that looked like a sports hall. The dorms were like huts and if you wanted the toilet or shower you had to cross the field to one of the out buildings. Needless to say we only stayed here for the one night. We made the night slightly more bearable with several bottles of wine. Having not explored New Plymouth we stayed in the town and moved into another hostel in the town centre. This one was lovely. We got a nice small dorm room which meant more chance of a good night's sleep.

Being the Easter weekend nothing was open. New Zealand seems to be really strict about their religious holidays. Even the radio stations can't play adverts over the Easter weekend.
Our plan was to do one of the walks up and round the volcano. The weather on the sea front was quite nice but as we drove inland toward the volcano it got worse and worse. By the time we had driven the road to the visitor centre on the far side of the volcano it was pouring with rain and the fog had come down. It was impossible to see anything. We drove straight back out again and the weather was fine.
Instead of the volcano we spent the day on a costal walk. Towards the end of the day we could see the clouds started to lift from round the volcano so we headed out to a lake that was meant to give great views. While some of the volcano did come into view we still couldn't see all of it.
With the sun starting to set we headed back to the harbour and to the sugar loaf mountains. These are a collections of three mounds one on land and two in the ocean, that closely resemble the real Sugar Loaf Mountain, all be it these were a lot smaller. Joking I said it would be good to climb to the top then just as we were leaving we noticed a small sign pointing upwards and claiming no responsibility for any injuries caused if you climbed up.
The climb was more of an assent than a hike. I'm sure if we had been in the UK this whole rock would have been fenced off. The climb took about 20 minutes but when we got to the top we had views across the whole city. We were now far higher than anything else around us apart from the huge volcano off in the distance. A perfect place to watch the sun go down.

With not so much as a corner shop open we had to go to pizza hut as it was literally the only place open.

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