Driving to New Plymouth

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Time to leave Kaiteriteri and its beatiful sandy beach, and head back to the north island.

This is going to short. It's not a short trip however, but having got back to Nelson airport, and flown back to Wellington with just as much ease and comfort as the outward flight, there was a 5 hour drive ahead of me to New Plymouth.

New Zealand roads serve their purpose. There is little dual carriageway, but not so much traffic, so you get along fine albeit slower than in Europe. The speed limit is 100km/h maximum, and most drivers keep to this. One of the only mild challenges on the roads is the number and size of lorries. It seems that the poor rail network encourages the development of road trains, so nearly every lorry has a trailer, and most of these drive 'with confidence'. They key is not to feel any pressure when they are behind you and closing the gap.

The drive out of Wellington is picturesque as you pass through the hills and along the west coast. There are some odd sounding names along the way, with Bulls taking the gold medal (there is a dairy there, so you can get milk from Bulls). Towns like Waverly, Stratford and Eltham show a British influence, and my destination, New Plymouth, is where some British settlers landed in 1840, from guess where?

For some strange reason, I started feeling tired after 3 hours driving, and the first miracle occured. I had a vision, and saw this big M rising in the distance. For the first time in my life, I was happy to see a McDonalds in front of me, and have to confess that their McCafe coffee is very good.

The trip was not over yet, and a second vision occurred about 90 minutes before I'd reached my destination. ALl of a sudden, and faintly in the distance, I saw Mount Taranaki for the first time. This has to be one of the most beautiful mountains on the the planet, and has been used as a stand-in for Mt Fuji. So here I was, a long way from the mountain that I wanted to climb on tomorrow, and it appeared infront of me. I had to stop, and you can see the stunning view I had in the photo here.

Around 22:30 this evening, I arrived in New Plymouth, and met up with Maurice and Jan. They are a Kiwi/Brit couple I met and got on well with a few weeks ago on Rarotonga, and they had invited me to stay. Their Jack Russel dog, Gemma, made me very welcome, on the condition I shared my food and gave tummy tickles, and we stayed up talking about travel and New Zealand, and other vitally important issues until the early hours. They are an incredibly warm and hospitable family, and I feel so lucky to have bumped into them. I really hope we can keep in touch.

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Photos

There she stood
From about 70km away, I caught my first glimpse of Mt Taranaki from just outside Waverly

Shakespear connection
This is Stratford New Zealand, and the Christmas lights make the historical connection in many colours

Warm kiwis
Maurice, Jan and Gemma made me so welcome in their beautiful home