Happy New Years

The New Year’s Eve drive from Waitomo to Stratford provided two options. We could either choose to drive the Forgotten World Highway or we could drive along the coast on the Surf Highway, and we chose the prior. The Forgotten World Highway got its name from the fact that the road is so windy and road conditions so poor that people forgot it was there as everyone takes the Coastal Route, or at least that’s why it should have gotten the name. The road is about 150km long and was the most direct route for our journey. It started out well enough and we drove through the Whanganui National Forest and then down through the Tangarakau Gorge. The road was a very tight two lane, probably close to 1.5 lanes and had several “saddles”. Apparently, the term saddle refers to an exceedingly windy and narrow road with no chance of seeing oncoming traffic or avoiding it. Thankfully, all Kiwi’s had forgotten about the highway anyway as we saw a rare few cars during 4ish hours along the route. The scenery along the route was mostly rugged farmland with sheep pastures among steep hilly terrain. Once in the gorge the landscape changed to dense rainforest up the side walls. There are no petrol stations along the road and only one town, Whangamomona Village, which claims to be a republic and not part of New Zealand. See the link for details.


Tangarakau Gorge

Republic of Whangamomona

Once through the republic, we pressed on with more of the same farmland until the road finally straightened out, as we rolled into Stratford.

Stratford is a small town on the edge of Mt. Taranaki National Park. We had booked a campsite the day before as many were filling up for during the holiday season. We found our site and set up around 5, then headed into town to get some tasty treats for the evening’s celebrations. Just as we left for the grocer the rain started to dump. We got pounded with rain for a good 4 hours before it let up. Fortunately, the holiday park had a nice lounge connected to a kitchen where we made our New Year’s feast of spaghetti with vegetables, hard cider (Grannypash) and some tasty desserts from the grocery store bakery. We spent most of the evening in the lounge until it was closed for the night around 11. During that time we watched The Sound of Music and attempted to tolerate the revolting strawberry flavored champagne we bought. I made it through a cup and Katie made it through 4-5 sips. The last hour of our year was spent in the tent, which was surprisingly dry with all the rain. We had a mini-countdown with a football drop at midnight, and tried to go to sleep. The partying camp neighbors had other plans and we were awake until 3 or so with their racket. Kids these days!


New Years in a Tent

We decided to start off our New Year kiwi style, with some tramping around Mt. Taranaki, another volcano. Unlike Mt. Tongariro, the other volcano we hiked, this one is set by itself. As you are driving you can see it from quite a distance as it stands alone among mostly plains and some rolling hills. We did not summit the mountain as crampons and ice axes were required because the top was still covered from last winter. Instead, we chose a couple short hikes around the base of the mountain within Mt. Taranaki National Park.

We pulled into a parking lot loaded with cars of other like minded people wanting to walk off a hangover or just start their new year with a day outside. The weather was sunny and warm. We started with a loop tramp called Wilkes Pools Loop Track. This was a cool short tramp that hiked a bit uphill and then upstream to a series of small waterfalls carved into the bedrock streambed which created Wilkes Pools. There was only a trickle of water coming down the creek so the waterfalls were small but really neat. There were also old lava flows to see. We then hiked away from that creek and over to another which lead us downhill back to where we started. This creek had a fair bit more water and had many waterfalls and waterslides as well.


Wilkes Pools


Mt. Taranaki

Following a PB and J picnic lunch we hit another short loop tramp, on the Kapuni Track toward Dawson’s Falls. This was the more popular track which highlighted an 18 metre waterfall. We walked down to the base, took a few photos, and headed back up to complete the loop.


Dawson's Falls

It was still only mid afternoon and small town Stratford was mostly dead since it was New Year’s Day so we decided to check out New Plymouth. We did have a small detour on the way to Lake Mangamahoe Park. There was a lot of water foul and some great views of the peak with the lake. It was worth the 5 minute drive for some nice views and a few pix. New Plymouth is the biggest city near Mt Taranaki and is on the west coast. We spend an hour or so walking along the shore on a paved bike path and then returned to the car via the main road of the city. The city centre was mostly deserted as 95% of shops and restaurants were closed for the holiday. The shoreline walk was nice and it felt good to be hot, as the sun was beating down on us the whole time. We don’t get too hot in Dunedin, ever. The evening was mostly organizing and cleaning the car and trying, unsuccessfully, to call and wish Happy New Year to those back home who arrived into the new year much later than we did.


Mt. Taranaki in the Background

Friday was all about driving from Mt Taranaki to the ferry in Wellington. It was a good day to drive with light rain and then sun. The drive took around 5 hours but we stopped at a few places along the way to eat and check out a small town. We arrived in Wellington a couple ours before we were to get on the ferry and the wind was howling. We assumed the ferry ride would be delayed and rough due to the weather but were going to take advantage of the time we had to check out the city. It was strange to be a “big” city as we haven’t seen one since we arrived. Wellington is the capital city and there is a “real” downtown with multiple story buildings and theatres etc. We walked for about an hour and got our choice of takeaway food for dinner. Katie had Pad Thai and I got an Indian chicken curry with rice. We then got to the ferry terminal and quickly ate in the car before boarding soon after. To our surprise the ferry was on time and smooth sailing but taking in the sights on deck was not fun due to all the wind.

We got into Picton (the other ferry port) and breezed through a DUI checkpoint to our campsite which was overbooked. So we put up our tent in the playground. That night was torrential downpours, but the tent stayed really dry.

We were up early as we hoped to get back to Dunedin that day. It was about a 10 hour drive back home. We did make a stop in Christchurch, the main city on the South Island, to check out an arts and farmers market, which was rumored to have a vendor for some of the wonderful German sausages we had a few weeks ago (See Quiet Crazy Week post) . The arts were plentiful, the produce was non-existent, and the sausages were in the house. We ate a couple, bought a few packs to take, checked out some art, ate a chocolate, banana, and cream crepe, shared a blueberry frozen yogurt, and headed out. Katie had read about a beach volleyball tourney also in Chch, so we rambled over to investigate. It was cooler and drizzling on the beach. The weather and level of play weren’t great so we quickly checked out the local landmark, Cave Rock, and finished our journey home. The last leg of the drive was studded with rain, wind, hail, thunderstorms, sun, and cool temps. We finally got home around 8 to find our house all dusty with newly polished hardwood in the living room and kitchen. We spend the rest of the night cleaning the house and unpacking from the trip.


Katie in Cave Rock

Overall the trip was a great time and we were glad to see the varied terrain and landscape of the North Island. We may head back to Wellington for a weekend but will unlikely make another voyage to the central locations we saw. It was strange to not be with friends or party on New Years, but we hope everyone had a great party and a Happy New Years! Ahhh, back to work.

Final Round of North Island Pictures