Road Trip: New Plymouth

    We arrived in New Plymouth just before dusk and after a couple of circles through the holiday park where we'd booked a cabin for a couple of nights we actually found it.
    It was tiny, with bunk beds, but the view from the front porch was - I can't believe I'm going to use this word - awesome.
    The sun was just starting to set as we started unpacking the car and it was so magical that we stopped, dug out our cameras and started shooting pictures. An hour later we finally did get around to hauling our backpacks into the cabin and set about the business of trying to find space for everything... yeah, it was so small that we actually had to plan where to put things.
    Finally settled, we headed into the center of town for dinner. Meals are always a cause for debate because while the two Elenas and I are fairly easy when it comes to choosing a place to eat, Josep is not. He can eat vast quantities of food at a sitting but he doesn't have what you might call an adventurous pallet. He does like Japanese food, however, and so we wound up at a place called Sushi Ninja. I admit I was a little hesitant to enter - I mean, the name is just a little too hokey for my taste, frankly - but I needn't have worried: The food was wonderful. It was so good and we had such a good time that I really wanted to buy a t-shirt from the restaurant (I'm addicted to t-shirts) but they were out of them... sigh.
    We awoke early in the morning and the two Elenas went on an adventure: They climbed to the top of Paritutu, a giant sugar loaf rock near the New Plymouth harbor. It took them a couple of hours but they made it all the way to the top and from there they had a spectacular view of the city, the harbor and the Tasman Sea.
    I spent that time reading and drinking a couple of cups of coffee... my climbing days are pretty much over.
    After a visit to a small gallery - another on the New Plymouth "must do" list - we headed to Pukekura Park, part of the gigantic Brooklands park complex.
    Amazing place: There are sections in the park where you swear you're walking through a Jurassic forest, others where you think you might be in a Japanese garden and still other parts in which you half expect to see Victorian ladies and gentlemen strolling along lightly wooded, flower-laden paths. We spent a good share of the day there and enjoyed every minute of it. On the way back we stopped at the Puke Ariki Museum for an hour before it closed and the security guards gently ushered us out. Puke Ariki is the world's first fully integrated museum, library and information center - well the first that was built on purpose to be all those things - and it is full of interactive exhibits.
    Elena, Josep and Elena spent their time in the museum on the ground floor among the exhibits that tell the story of the earliest European settlers and their interactions with the Maori.
    I spent my time up on the second floor learning a lot about Mount Taranaki, whaling and the giant critters that once inhabited North Island.
    Pretty fascinating...
    Elenita has a friend in New Plymouth - a guy she met in London when they both worked there - so she went to dinner with him that night while Elena, Josep and I went to an Indian restaurant. Another good choice: More excellent food.
    We had good weather in the morning, for awhile. The Elenas went for a walk while I read a few more chapters in my book and had a couple more cups of coffee.
    Josep slept.
   We headed out on our way back to Lower Hutt just as the sky started to cloud up and before long we were in a driving rainstorm.
    That actually turned out to be a good thing because we got to see some truly beautiful rainbows over Mount Taranaki.
    We got home late, tired but happy.
    It was a great road trip and, unlike those I went on in my younger days, there were no hangovers in the aftermath, the police were not involved and I actually remembered everything I did.
    It really doesn't get much better than that...

Amazing building art in New Plymouth.

Birds at the tea house in Pukekura Park are not shy. They come to the table and wait patiently to be fed some crumbs. Most people oblige.

There is a small zoo in Pukekura Park and among its inhabitants is this rare crane, which decided at the moment I took this photo to preen his feathers.

The park features this Japanese garden built into one of its hillsides.

The view from the front por h of our holiday cabin at low tide.

The harbor at New Plymouth at sundown.

Pukekura Park is a favorite spot for photographers, including those who are doing fashion shoots.

I love the contrast of this pink tree against the green of the forest.

The harbor at New Plymouth in the morning.

You can't see Mount Taranaki because of the clouds but this rainbow was about halfway up it.

The Poet Bridge at Pukekura Park. The bridge has nothing to do with poetry: The man who paid for its construction  did so after he won a lot of money at the racetrack one day when he bet on a horse called - you guessed it - The Port.

The view from the front porch of our holiday cabin at high tide.