It was long 400km drive to Taranaki, travelling through suburban towns and villages from Wellington to Stratford, the closest town to the heart of Tarankai National Park (and a weird glockenspiel)
After being bombarded with information from the very knowledgable, but annoyingly talkative lady, we realised the forecast wasn't in our favour to appreciate any views from or around Taranaki, let alone hike to the 2518m summit, so we decided to head up towards New Plymouth.
The city of New Plymouth took us both by surprise with it's fancy architecture, great coastal views and even treated us to some sunshine. We took a walk along the coastal path to a nice restaurant - Bach on Breakwater - enjoyed a delicious dinner and watched the sunset from our campsite overlooking the beach.
The followed day Mount Taranaki popped out her snowcapped crater from above the clouds whilst we we're eating breakfast, but it wasn't enough for us to tempt us from a day exploring the caves at Waitomo. We set off on our way, heading further up North, driving through the lush green pastures and volcanic hills, stopping at PioPio for lunch - a cute little town and filming location for Lord of the Rings. After arriving in Waitomo, we enjoyed a fun afternoon in the Waitomo caves, jumping in to waterfalls, floating in total darkness and learning that the beautiful glow worms that lit some of the dark caves is nothing more than shiny maggot poo!
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