Today we drove to the metropolis of Taranaki district, the town of New Plymouth, and booked in for a 3-night stay at a "Holiday Camp" (RV Park).
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From here, weather permitting, we will get some looks at Mount Taranaki. Just to tantalize us we looked it up in Wikipedia.
We did NOT see this today.
We have seen Taranaki, from the air in 2005 as our tour group flew from Auckland to Christchurch.
The skirt of the mountain is a perfect circle as neat as if you'd marked it with a compass.
We've been looking forward to a close look at Taranaki since we started planning this trip. The weather forecast is mmmm...sorta hopeful. We'll see. We have contingency plans for "if we can see the mountain" and "if we can't."
Well, but, today we drove the "Forgotten World Highway," a narrow and lightly-travelled road through alternating farmland and wilderness. And by lightly-travelled we mean, over 95 miles we saw perhaps 20 cars oncoming, and none, zero, cars came up behind.
The weather alternated between pouring rain and watery gleams of sunshine. Here are a few pics along the way. Forgive blurs due to shooting through a rainy windscreen.
Starting out alongside a rain-swollen river.
A ray of sunshine! Snap a picture!
No photoshop: it really is this color.
Native vegetation: once it was all like this. Then came sheep farming.
New Plymouth has about 50,000 population and a bustling downtown. On its waterfront is this sculpture, the Wind Wand, a 45-meter tall carbon-fiber shaft that flexes in the wind.
Will we see the mountain tomorrow?
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