Taranaki Travels

When looking at a map of the North Island of New Zealand, you can’t help but notice this blip/bump in the west side. When you look closer at the maps, you see there is a lone mountain there… and you are intrigued…

Well we were.

So we left Wellington for the Taranaki region. As with most places, the English arrived and put their names on things, so Cook called this mountain Egmont. It has been reverted to its’s original Māori name, Taranaki, but many things in the area still bear the Egmont name.

It was another grey day as we left the capital, but views were still great

A former Māori stronghold

The info

It was Friday… so fish and chips had to be found

In a town call Bull… you can imagine, the village had fun with that…

We made it to our Airbnb for the next two days, a lovely cottage, tucked back from the road, with a garden to die for! They open their garden for a fundraiser once a year… and I can believe it!

This morning we headed out to explore the area. We headed to Stratford on Pãtea, now know as just Stratford. They have a little pioneer village… with a train 😆

Someone is excited!

All aboard

The ride, twice around the village!

The mountain in the background

Found the village villain

Took him to the village church…. He’s better now

They rent it for weddings.

Lovely old organ

One of the Village streets

We then left the village and headed up the mountain, to the viewing platform which is not quite halfway up.

The view of the mountain, in the morning, we drove up to about where the lowest clouds are.

The view looking up!, you can see a little house for hikers.

The view down

We then drove down back into the town, where they have the only Glockenspiel clock in New Zealand, that of course, tells a short excerpt of Romeo and Juliet