New Zealand or Bust!: New Plymouth, Forgotten Highway, and the Forgotten Rail

Hey all
Cec had a few days off so we took an extended day trip! Started with a drive over to New Plymouth. We left late morning because Cec is doing an amazing job training for his FULL marathon at the beginning of November. Anyway, we ended up going to the isite which also has a beautiful museum inside of it. The museum is specific to the region and goes through the history and such. Lots of cool old clothes, items (like it's chairs and plows) and a lot of information about the dairy and farming industry! There was a video which chronicled the decline of the local population of bird called the Kokako. They apparently caught a "purebred" (genetically speaking) from the area came because all the birds left were male (females are often killed while defending nests from predators like mice). His name was Tamanui, named by the local Maori, in hopes that one day his children could be restored to the area. Basically, his children are thriving in a couple sanctuaries now and tech locals are trying to clear a spot of land of pests so they can be reintroduced ASAP. I personally hope they succeed.

(cec and I saw a nice women waiting to pick up her kids from school WITH HER SHEEP! Apparently they need to be fed every 2ish hours.)

(This was an integrated public library, museum and isite)

They also had an upstairs region about the local ecosystem and Maori people. We didn't get a chance to explore that too much as we wanted to check into our hotel and get to the coastal walkway, which was the main reason for our trip. The place we were staying was kind enough to lend us bikes and pointed us down this nice biking/ waking path to to the coast. We biked about an hour, to the famous whale bone bridge and back. The weather was perfect. Sunny and not to warm. The only negative was mount taranaki was covered in clouds so we couldn't photograph him. We returned the bikes and headed back down to the walkway to catch sunset after grabbing a snack. Watching the surfers (great surf area apparently) and sunset was great although cold. Then we did a quick grocery run and used the grill at our hotel to make some burgers, haolumi cheese, and steamed veggies for dinner. Great day! By the way, the Lockwood Motel in New Plymouth was awesome!

(It was amazing to have this nice walkway to get to the coast vs. crappy sidewalks or bike lanes)

(Lillies grow everywhere along the banks. Serene....)

(The walkway is about 12K total length, we only had time for a short part of it)

(We made the most of our time biking in NZ for the first time!)

(We couldn't resist going back at sunset either)

(The 'must see' feature is the "whalebone bridge". If the clouds aren't covering taranaki you can see the mountain through the bridge. Regrettably, the mountain was hiding today)

(I'm staying off the sand in all the driftwood)

(Cec loves beaches and sunsets)

(And it turned out to be a beautiful evening)

The next morning we checked out and headed back to the coastal walkway to a different section. The thing is long and we wanted to see both ends. We walked to the port and back then decided to pop into a couple of local shops and wait for a South Inidan restaurant to open at noon for Lunch called Kathakali. Cec devoured his "Indian hot" as the waiter asked how he wanted it/described Masala Dosha. I drank tea as we passed a placed called "bubble waffle". I knew what I wanted lol. I ended up having a savory bacon and egg waffle,which was like a thick crepe. Apparently this is a common Korean street food, AKA egg waffle. Seriously, flaky and scrumptious perfect waffle. So good I fact Cec and I got a banana rolls as well, which was vanilla waffle, Nutella and banana. Worth every bite.

(Yes, you walk over active train lines, lol)

(We hit the other side of the walkway on a much sunnier day)

(Kerala style Masala Dosha!)

(Nutella Bubble wafffle also aweome!)

(I am SOOO happy in this picture)

After that we heads to the forgotten how at and drove to Tamaruni. Picturesque and old the name is an adequate description. Tons of one lane bridges, sheep, goats and cows. Some of those even got loose and were on the road! There were Tunnels with dirt sides and unsealed roads. We even had quite a bit of heavy rain and rainbows.

(It starts....)

(Apparently farmers in the region let turkeys run wild to help control cricket populations)

(This is our "passport" from the Republic of Wangamomona, which technically has its own jurisdiction over a cessation in the 1800's. The hotel also makes its own beer- which was quite tasty)

(This is a stop we managed to make before the rain started to POUR. This is a grave of an explorer who died at the age of 35 in 1938. BTW I am standing on the highway for this picture... You feel like you stepped into a backwards country)

(This is everything NZ, rainbows, hills and sheep)

The rain slower our trip and we ended up coming in a little after 7, and found our hotel closed! Booking.com had it listed until 9pm and there were a series of frantic phone calls to the hotel and booking.com. We ended up finishing somewhere else a little after 8pm, thank God, and our money hot refunded. Alls well I suppose but I was ticked. I know there are always travel bumps but still … by the time we got in after that fiasco we hit the hay hard!

We decided not to dwell on it the next day and checked into our "5 Tunnel Tour". Basically, they load you on to modified golf carts and you drive down the "Forgotten Railway". VERY NZ, in that its rolling hills, cows and sheep with very old tunnels built in the 1900's. I'm glad we decided on the motorized vs. peddle bikes (yes, that was an option) as it rained off and on but that didn't spoil the day at all. Cec and I had brought a bluetooth speaker so we listened to an audiobook as we slowly went through the countryside. We saw everything from wild turkey to loose sheep. There were a couple stops were the guide told us about the railway. We even stopped in the long one (its about 1.5km long) and turned off all the lights and it was totally dark. Like I-can't-see-my-hand-in-front-of-me-dark. Building those things in the 1900's was HARD work to btw. Still standing strong. We stopped after about 2 hours in a tiny, 5 building, town for some veggie soup and a bun then turned around and headed back. After that, cec and I headed home just in time for the rain to seriously start coming down. What a fun, not-average tour see a video HERE)