On Friday afternoon we left for New Plymouth (of course again much later than wanted) and started to get down as fast as possible, passed the beautiful green hills with sheep and cows. It was a great drive, enjoying the sunset and the view of the ocean. We were really impressed to see the silhouette of Mt. Taranaki in the dark since it was still all covered in snow!

Our hostel called The Missing Leg was very cosy, decorated with bikes all over the place and with a nice fireplace to warm up (sounds like it is winter…hey?!). This time we didn’t do a good job buying food for the weekend, because we had far too much cakes and cookies as well as pasta and sauce left over… well, I guess me and Diana should not be in charge of that again… On Saturday we went hiking around Mt. Taranaki. Although we didn’t go up high, the track was still covered all in snow which is abnormal for this time of the year. The others visited the lighthouse at Cape Egmont, had a wonderful walk (wasn’t it…??? J) through Puneiki – a Rhododendron garden – and then met at the Pukekura Park in New Plymouth.

On Sunday the weather was beautiful… thus we went to Lake Mangamahoe to get a nice view and picture of the volcano Mt. Taranaki. Unfortunately there was this stupid cloud that did not want to leave… we used the time of waiting to pick on the ducks! Then we stopped at Dawson’s Falls and the White Cliffs. The beach there was pretty amazing: all black volcano sand which was sparkling in the sun.