It's still there!!

I was about to leave... Thought I'd have one more look... and it was there!!!! After 4 days: Mt TARANAKI!!!!!!

Might look familiar to you. You can see this mountain in the movie ' The Last Samurai' with Tom Cruise.

Surf Highway 45

After Mokau my journey continued to New Plymouth and from there it’s only a 10 minute drive to Egmont Village. The thing that makes people come here is the mountain, called Mt Taranaki or Mt Egmont (the first name is the Maori name). I got dropped of in the middle of nowhere (again) and found my way to the backpackers. An awesome place. The owner, Brian, is a quirky, friendly kiwi (this is exactly how he describes himself and it’s true) and he is mad about bikes. The whole frontgate is made out of bikes, they hang on the ceiling and so on. Brian used to cycle around the mountain in one day (180 km). The 2nd day I decided I’d do the same, not in one but three days. Yesterday I started cycling. I made it to New Plymouth. I made it to Okato. And just after Okato I lost one of my paddles. I walked back to the village and found a petrol station. Behind it were three guys fixing cars so I walked in and had them (yes, all three of them) fix the bike. I started cycling but the paddle fell of again. I called Brian: shall I start hitchhiking back?? It was about 45 km back to the village. Brian told me to just wait there and he came all the way to pick me up. Today I’ll have another go on the bike but not around the mountain. I’ll just go to North Egmont, only 16 km and it’s one of the entrances to Egmont National Park.

Deserted

Sometimes you wonder how you end up in what seems like the most deserted places on earth. Last monday I visited the kiwi's (the animal that is) in Otorohanga. A small village. After that I was off to Waitomo for some adventure. The Waitomo Caves are the caves for abseiling, caving, black water rafting, glowworms, squeezing through tiny holes and rockclimbing, and I did it all. (Pics follow, my friend send them once she gets back to California in a few days) If you think Waitomo Village isn't much (it has a pub, village store, info centre, museum, offices where you can book your cave adventure and an angora rabbit sheare house) then go to Mokau! I only decided to go there because the description that the hostel there gave seemed really nice. But I appeared to be the only one there! The owners came in for 5 minutes during the evening and after that it was just me, stormy weather, a radio and may be a couple of ghosts.... (just kidding)

Walkway in Waitomo

Mokau....

Sunset