Did you know out tent moves all by itself? No? Well at about 4am (dark and pre-dawn anyway) Ron woke me up, “ Margery will you check the shoes are still there, the tent’s just moved about 4 feet”. Trying very hard not to laugh, I asked him why.. “Because of the water”. “What water?”...at that point I gave up, checked the shoes outside the door, reassured him that the tent hadn’t moved 4 feet...and finally persuaded him to go back to sleep! Now Ron says he doesn’t often dream..I know he does because he holds conversations with himself! The problem is you only ever get half a sentence, so you haven’t a clue what he’s dreaming about! Whatever it was this time, it must have been serious!! Maybe he’s heard too much about earthquakes and volcanoes...or maybe it was the sound of the waterfall! Whatever it was, I hope he doesn’t dream again tonight, goodness knows where the tent will end up!
Maybe it was the cheese we had for our Carbonara supper. Our German neighbours this morning decided to move to another site because the sound of the waves crashing and the waterfall kept them awake so maybe it was a..........Please tune in for our next exciting episode of On the Waterfront. Ron.
You silly sausage! There won’t be one - any chance of a recurrence and you’re wearing ear plugs!
Better than sleeping in the car!
Well, we are in New Plymouth and the weather is hot, hot, hot! So, what do you do? Well we decided to find a cool spot out of the sun as much as possible and visited Pukeiti Gardens situated on a hill above the city. The main entrance was closed as there was a one day cricket match taking place between two local teams. We immediately came across some bizarre luminous boulders, and spheres hung above the path which were part of their Festival of Lights which ran from Dec 23rd until 7th Feb. Also the evening free music concerts finished on Sunday, as well. The park had a good children’s playground with a very ingenious (and very NZ) way of stopping small rear ends from being burnt! Sadly there were also “Big Brother” type cameras there as well.
This didn’t spoil our visit though as there was a bazaar of colours, shapes and to cap it a perfect sighting of Mt Taranaki (Mt Egmont) after which this area of NZ is known. As you will have seen this is a volcano 2500 metres high which last erupted in the 18th Century, and so there is no real knowing if or when it will erupt again, especially in NZ where the “Ring of Fire” runs through both islands. The park covers 120 acres and included a very large and well stocked display house and fernery – we found it on the way out – it made us an hour and a half late for lunch!
Tricia, Cliff and the Shadows are playing at the Brooklands Bowl on 24th Feb. I’s a fantastic natural amphitheatre and the acoustics should be phenomenal. if you want tickets they’re available via Ticketmaster or we can enter on your behalf via Taranaki local paper. The music scene in NZ seems very good albeit a bit retro. Thankfully we will be in South Island!! Oi-!!! Cheeky!
Philias was getting a bit browned off not being let into the park, and the zoo we also went to, but we were considerate of NZ laws prohibiting the introduction of new species! He was allowed to eat with us at lunch time, but he was having trouble with the brightness so needed to use my sunglasses!
We then visited an excellent museum which gave the history of the area. (Telegraph Road; Dire Straits) “Built a cabin and a winter store, then came the churches, then came the war......”. In particular the on going development of the city amenities. Whilst farming (mainly dairy), and its associated butter and cheese businesses was the mainstay until the early 60’s, the discovery of petroleum in the 19th centuary by the Maori was soon capitalised upon by the Pakeha who took all the revenue until the oil dried up in 1910. The economic situation collapsed and then came the First World War!
This has left its mark on the area and the city and it still has a “frontier town” feel about it although oil was re discovered in the 70’s and has brought the prosperity that we all know about. But with no passenger rail connection any longer with Wellington or Auckland this place has become a bit of a law unto its self, but with a very progressive local government which wants to give the best to its inhabitants. Hence, all the places we went to today were free admission. This made up for the price of the caves yesterday.
Read in the local paper that they have a cheese rolling championship this Saturday.
Something about the area appealed and that’s why we changed our original plans to move on to Wellington today.
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