New Plymouth

We've been in Wellington for 3 weeks now, so we thought it was time to take a vacation from our vacation :)

Hannah and Dejan were busy with work, so I took it upon myself to plan the little trip. When my mom and Val came to visit, they didn't use all of their bus passes, so Hannah and I got to use those up for free!

I decided we would all head to New Plymouth, which is along side the west coast on the North Island. We would spend three days there and then head back to Wellington. The first day (Friday) we decided to hire bikes and bike along the coast. There was a really nice paved path that took us to beaches and through the country side. 

One of the beaches we stopped at

Lots of beautiful rocks and shells to find

Dejan and Hannah racing across the bridge

Just a couple of dweebs

These moo'ers get a beach as a backyard 

We were able to bike home, while watching the sunset

On Saturday, we went to Egmont National Park, home to Mt. Taranaki. Since it's heading into winter here, the mountain wasn't safe to climb, but there were still tons of trails along the bottom. The park was an hour drive away from New Plymouth, so we thought we would see what happens when we try to hitch hike with three people. We ended up getting there, 2 hours and 3 different drivers later, we always seem to meet the strangest of characters. We got dropped off by our second driver, just 15 km from the park...we were so close! We were standing on the side of the road, when an old, rusty pick-up truck pulled up. Inside were two men. Each missing a fair amount of teeth, with long hair in pny tails. In the passenger seat, sat a man with a cigarette in his mouth where a tooth should be. If you have ever seen Duck Dynasty, these two were the New Zealand version of those guys. The men were the definition of New Zealand bush people. Their accent was so thick, that it took us a minute to realize that they were offering us a ride. While physically they may have been scary, they had the kindest souls we've met here so far. They went out of their way to take us up to the park and even showed us around and gave us all sorts of information and stories (at least I think that's what they were telling us... i don't know if it was their lack of teeth or their accent, but something was making it hard to understand them) . 

We finally made it! One of the hikes we took was the Wilkies Pools. Tumbling water and swirling gravel has slowly carved the series of pools out of a 20,000 year out lava flow. It was a beautiful hike! We crossed lots of streams and saw many water falls, we also got a good look at Mt. Taranaki 

Mt. Taranki in it's full glory! 

Part of the hike was through "The Goblin Forest". Named because all the trees were covered and hanging in moss, beautiful yet eery at the same time! 

Hannah braving the stream

Dejan climbing a moss covered tree

On Sunday, we were heading back to Wellington, but not until the afternoon. We spent the morning walking along the coast, dreading the 5 hour bus ride back. 

The mightiest of drinking fountains! 

It was an awesome mini-vaca. Back to Wellington to plan our 11 day tour of the North Island before heading back home to good ol' Minnesota!