Part 1 of 3 - Taranaki

We left the Quaker Settlement last Thursday after a week of painting (well actually I didn't do any painting at all because I hate painting but I did do painting related things) we set off on further adventures.
One of the couples from the Settlement recommended that we take a canoe trip down the Whanganui River. They had taken the trip twice before and just thought it was a great time. So we are easy to sway on such things and we called up and made a reservation for that Sunday. Part 2 will talk all about the canoe trip but part 1 is about how we spent Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
We finished up and left the Settlement by about 2 and after some grocery shopping and other errands we took off in the direction of Mt. Taranaki (39°17'35.79"S, 174° 4'11.23"E). This volcano is gorgeous. When you look at it in Google Earth it looks like a huge circle from above. That's because the mountain is so symmetrically conical. Apparently it is often used as a stand in for Mt. Fuji in movies. We were both tired that day and so (after a few bookstores we decided to just head up to a campsite and settle in for the night ). While we dove up to the mountain it was all completely shrouded in clouds. No view at all. We parked in the parking lot for "Dawson Falls" (39°19.463' S, 174°06.269' E). Once we had set up camp in Lu we took the short walk down to the falls. They were pretty spectacular. I'm not sure if we've mentioned this before but we made the decision that in a nation with SO many waterfalls if one has a sign to it then it must be really something to see. So far we have not been let down by any of the named waterfalls.

After our short walk we settled in for the night, tried to watch a movie on the computer and went to sleep.
In the morning we woke up to better weather but we could still not see the top of the mountain (even though we were staying on it). We took a different hike. This time we went further up the hill to a place called Wilkies Pools (39°18.936' S, 174°05.674' E). As we walked the weather got better and better. The Sun was certainly out but the top of the mountain was still mostly covered. Wilkies pools are a series of pools created as this stream worked its way down the mountain and carved out the softer rock. There was a geocache that led us there but the real fun was once we got there. The first piece of the pools that we came to was shaped perfectly to be a 3 meter water slide. Those of you who came with us to the rock slide in VA will know how much fun it was. I was a bit hesitant (because I'm a chicken) but Carrie was all for it. After some careful analysis of the death potential Carrie climbed to the top and took the plunge.

It was very cold (snow melt really) but it was an awesome ride. After Carrie, I had to have a try and then Carrie went a few more times after me. It was great!
Once we had dried off and hiked back to the car we decided to go ahead and drive South to the coast and around on the coast all the way around the mountain. There are some small towns we stopped in and as the day went on it became clearer and clearer so we had some magnificent views of Taranaki.

We did a few geocaches along the coast (including one that was right near an old shipwreck) and ended up in the town of New Plymouth (39° 3'4.64"S, 174° 4'52.92"E). They had a nice art gallery full of crappy art and a great little museum. We did a few more geocaches and decided to hang out there into the night so we could watch for the comet. Right now the comet McNaught is visible here at night. I don't know enough about celestial bodies to know if you guys can see it too but it is really something to see. After we saw it the clouds came back in a bit and we decided to head to the campground for the night. We drove back up the mountain to another parking lot (S 39° 18.465 E 174° 06.025) up on the mountain. We were the only ones there until about 3:00 in the morning when this boy racer (that's what they call teenaged buys with big cars here) came up and started doing doughnuts in the parking lot. It scared us both awake but he left right away and actually it was nice of him to wake us. While we had been asleep the sky had completely cleared and the stars were clearer than perhaps I have ever seen them. We could see the Milky Way stretching right across the sky. It was gorgeous. I took a few pictures but you be the judge if they came out or not.

The next day we did a few more geocaches and then we drove along this long stretch of highway called "Forgotten World Highway." Basically it is just a really rural (even for New Zealand) road. It was nice and along the way we stopped at Mt. Damper Falls which is the tallest waterfall on the North Island.

After all of that it was Saturday night and so we stayed the night on the side of a river right down the road from our canoe outfitters. We were up bright and early the next morning to start our canoe trip but you'll have to read about that in part 2...

Matt