Trip to Taranaki

On Boxing Day, we jumped in a hire car and drove off to the Taranaki region with Darren and Emete for 3 days of exploring. Taranaki is halfway up the west coast of the North Island and is dominated by Mount Taranaki (or Mount Egmont), a huge dormant volcano which last erupted around 1755. See this link for the Maori story of Mount Taranaki. After 4 hours drive, just as the volcano came into view, we stopped at Dairyland to take some photos of a large cow, possibly the biggest cow in the Southern Hemisphere!

We then drove round to New Plymouth, the main town in the Taranaki region and booked into the Egmont Eco Lodge, a YHA set in a peaceful, green valley 5 minutes drive from the city centre.

When we checked in, the lady at reception asked us "Are you here for the lights?" !! Not having a clue what she was talking about, we discovered that we'd arrived just in time for the Festival of Lights, when a local artist lights up the trees in the botanical gardens with coloured lights and people come for miles around to walk round the park after dark, listen to live bands and row on the lake! So, of course, off we went that night to Pukekura Park and it was really magical, in spite of the hundreds of people who were also there. There was a live Celtic band, so we sang along to Sally McLenane and Irish Rover etc under the stars - gorgeous!


Jen, Nige and a huge cow!