I was about to tell you that this bit was boring. The problem is that I think I said that about yesterday too, and that’s really not fair.

The run from New Plymouth to Palmerston North was a wonderful run across a south facing coast, with some lovely countryside to the north and incredible seas to the south. The view ahead of us was of a glorious mountain range. But we got very few photos, so it made it quite dull for you to read about – unless you fancied reading about how incredibly incredible everything was and how stunningly stunning the views were.

As you can see on the map, the road from Palmerston North to Paekakariki takes a very promising route down the western coast across open plains between the incredibly incredible mountains and the stunningly stunning ocean. Between being the important word… Read the rest of this entry »

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 »