Forest for the Trees
What a glorious day. It had rained during the night. Sun out this AM. Puffy clouds. Hit 22. No humidity. First week of autumn and it could be mid-July in Vancouver. We set off after breakfast deep into the…
Nothing to See Here
Excellent day, not much to blog about. In the morning we set off for the Hastings Farmer’s Market which was in Havelock North, walkable for us (because Horse of the Year was in Hastings occupying the space! See yesterday’s…
Surf’s Up (But Oooof, is our Dollar Down)
What a treat to wake up and make your own fresh breakfast. Fruit. Granola. Organic milk. Eggs from the hens on the property. Homemade bread and jam. After we ate too many calories for “the most important meal of…
International Green Space Award Winner
Five times! Once again I am flummoxed by how many diverse, inconsequential and esoteric awards there are on the planet. But more on who won that coveted award (five times) in a second. This morning we rose in the…
We ❤️ Palmy
“If you wish to kill yourself but lack the courage to do so, I think a visit to Palmerston North will do the trick.” John Cleese “Residents [in North Palmerston] fed up with burnouts, speeding and crime on their…
Carry on Camping
We checked out of our seaside hotel at 10, ran a few errands in New Plymouth, then drove down the Surf Highway, route 45, a couple of hours from New Plymouth to Opunake. It’s a little holiday town with a…
American Elms, English Ash, Cycad Vegetation
We did some gardens. After coffee and a scone, we set off to the outskirts of New Plymouth for a visit to Tupare. The gardens here were, in the 1930s, part of a private residence of a local industrialist. By…
It’s Mt. Denali and Mt. McKinley, It’s Mt. Denali and Mt. McKinley
So, yes, we spent a day hiking Mt. Taranaki, a dormant volcano which lies due east of New Plymouth (named, by Cook, Mt. Egmont, so it depends on how old your atlas is as to what it’s called). Given the…
Compare and Contrast Day
First full day in New Plymouth: it was cloudy, it was warm and humid, it was windy. We walked the west coast. There is a seawall here that runs from the working port in the south, through the city, to…
From the Towers of Manhattan to the Hills of Beverly
A new dawn: We Go Bi-Coastal. With all due respect to Peter Allen. We got up early, we took an Uber to the Christchurch “International” Airport, and caught a flight to Auckland, then rented a car, and drove southwest to…