Discovering New Plymouth has taken us to mountain tops, beaches, and beautiful parks. So, in addition to work (for Des), house and car hunting, we’ve enjoyed the outdoors immensely. The coastal walkway is a favorite bike ride spot. It’s about 11 Kilometers long and at 8 K is the Taranaki Cycle Park. Kai likes the BMX track and rode 3 laps around and took it slow. It’s way steeper than this photo shows! There’s also a full sized velodrome that we skipped.

The other day Kai bought a new basketball and we found some courts in the Fitzroy neighborhood. Turned out it was a place to play Net Ball. Kai learned a few rules- Mostly it’s not easy to land a shot without a backboard! We had a nice chat with a local family. The dad explained the game a bit, likes the Spurs and is a pretty good basketball player himself.

 

 

 

 

 

A famous feature in the center of the town is Pukekura Park. There’s a sports field “Sportspark” for cricket and walking trails winding around 2 lakes. I’m still an botanical beginner and would describe it as Jurassic park; lots of huge ferns, palms, something like pine trees, and waterfalls. Below is a short movie of this wild park.

 

 

The beaches and waves have been more calm recently- perfect for body surfing and trying out rescue boards!

We’ve already figured out that the weather here is a mix of rain, wind and warm sunshine. New Zealand is also known as Aotearoa. The Maori translation is “Land of the Long White Cloud” and historically referred to the North Island. At our locale, the clouds form daily over Mt Egmont. However, last week storms barreled across the Tasman Sea and hit the area with a force of nature! Tides were up over their peak of 11 feet and waves were huge ( by our standards). I didn’t get great photos of the storm due to the high winds and rain but it was spectacular to see. Des took video from the swim center.

This cool facility is a short walk from our hotel apartment. Outdoors is a 50 meter pool and high dive and inside is pure theme park! We all ran, slipped and flopped along the huge log like floating obstacle course. Kai was the only champion of course. I couldn’t believe Kiwis let people do this at a public pool! Huge guys and kids ran full steam and most flew off into the pool. Ever see the show “Wipeout”?!

The Rain didn’t stop us from a short bike ride along the walkway and a run up the long black sand hill at Back Beach next to Paritutu Rock.

The sun felt great when it appeared again- Perfect weather for biking and seeing the other end of town. Later Des and I happened upon a cricket match .

There’s always something cool to see and eat in town!

Of note , the short videos on the post won’t play on the email , you need to click the title to watch it on the main site- I’m still working on the video player so this is a test run.

Cheers!

The town of New Plymouth is a little quirky and at the same time majestically scenic. The people as a whole are very active. I passed several “seniors” on razor scooters and bikes on the coastal walkway today. Kiwis really say “Good day Mate!” and “Cheers” and we are getting accustomed to their accents. Substitute an “I” for “e” and turn left becomes turn “lift” and so on. Yes, everything is backwards or flipped: light switches flip down to turn on, you drive and ride bikes on the left side of the road or path, bike brakes are reversed, swimmers loop clockwise, and you even walk down a sidewalk on the left side! It takes concentration to do simple tasks.

The sun was intense yesterday so we took full advantage of the long day. We strolled along the coastal walkway and through downtown. An unusual attraction is The Wind Wand. It’s a 48 meter (160 foot) fiberglass rod that functions as a zephyrometer but mostly provides us with a helpful point of reference along the coastline. Of note, it was stuck by lightening during a thunderstorm last September! Here’s the story if interested: https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/96937428/winds-pick-up-speed-and-cut-power-to-south-taranaki-homesAt the west end of town is the famous Paritutu rock. Des and Kai hiked to the top and back. ” I didn’t think it was gonna be this hairball “, said Kai along the way. The black sand beach on the other side is quite idyllic. It’s protected by the Sugar Loaf islands and a safe place to swim and play.