Fairly early on in our plans for New Zealand I decided that I wanted to go to New Plymouth. People I spoke to back here looked at the map and told me that I was a lunatic. People on the internet pointed at the volcanic bits in the middle of the island or the huge expanse of the south island, and told me I was a lunatic. But I was determined – I wanted to go to New Plymouth.

When we got to Auckland we spoke to a couple of people about our plans. Some expressed pleasant surprise that we weren’t blasting from Auckland to Wellington to go do big town stuff. Others told us it was one of the best things we could do.

I’m glad we went. Read the rest of this entry »