Goin' to surf city

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Thursday March 3rd Surfing Highway 45

Let's go surfin' now
Everybody's learning how
Come on and safari with me….the Beach Boys

Today I have a short and enjoyable drive from Wanganui to New Plymouth. The drive is around the western “horn” of the north island. This area was formed by a very large, extinct, volcano called Mt Taranaki. The photos don’t express the grandeur of it. The landscape is littered with what appear to be lumpy hills that are really the remnants of the explosions from the mt. The coastal area is covered with wide flat beaches with sparkling black sand. This is the home of highway 45, or the Surfing Highway. Every town has a surf shop and it’s own beach. The surfer in my shots was on a beach at Opunake, one of the more popular places. The shots of the birds and boulders were from the beach at Oakura. I spent the night in New Plymouth with Paula Martin’s mother and stepfather. Encouraged by a couple of bottles of wine we compared upbringings, life as we knew it and world religions (only kidding on the last one).

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Photos

wierd
The stack is the old power plant at New Plymouth

Don't know my birds
He let me get within 20ft before flying away