Outstanding October: Part 1 - The Forgotten World Highway & New Plymouth
It's here! Week three of my "Oustanding October" series! What's that? You missed week two's post? No worries...I got you covered. Click the link below to catch up and then come on back to continue reading about week three!🙂
CLICK >>> Outstanding October: Northern Beaches, Geocaching, & Friends <<<
School was back in session this week after the two weeks of break. Emily had a twin dress-up day and Ava and I hit the beach. The water was still a bit cool for swimming, but that didn't stop her from running along the shore!
Unfortunately, because of our driving schedule, we couldn't pull over at many of the recommended stops on this road. We did squeeze in a few - the first of which was Nevin's Lookout. Thankfully, we had a gorgeous day with minimal clouds so we could see quite far. In the distance, we even saw the mountains Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe, and Tongariro. Although, to be honest, I'm not sure which was which in the pictures below (notice the snow!).
Continuing on, the curvy road brought us on a roller coaster of a ride uphill and down - eventually to a 12 km section of unpaved road on the Tangarakau Gorge. While driving on this section, we all wondered: A) How long the unpaved road would last, B) Why this section wasn't paved, and C) How slow-going the travel must have been so long ago when the entire road was unpaved. Personally, I felt at home on the gravel. It brought me back to good 'ol Emery Drive.💜 After the unpaved section, we soon came upon the 180m long tunnel, dubbed the "Hobbit Hole." How cool is that?! The interesting fact about this tunnel is that it was built in the 1930's (renovated again in the 1980's) and only has one lane. We stopped at the beginning to take our pictures and to allow a truck to drive through to the other side. Thankfully, there weren't many people traveling the road that day so we had plenty of time to sit, stand, jump, and handstand in the middle of the road! Before checking out the pictures, please watch the following video of our approach to the tunnel. It is perhaps one of my favorite videos of my year here...take a look and have the volume up!
Into the Hobbit Hole we went and 180m later we emerged on the other side, ready to continue on our way to Whangamomona. A few minutes later, we pulled over for another stop as the view of the snow-covered mountains was too good to pass by.
About 20 minutes later, we saw the sign for Whangamomona and a conveniently empty railroad track that was ideal for a few pictures. Into the quiet Republic of Whangamomona we drove before parking in front of the hotel. It is one of those places where you would almost miss it if you blinked...kind of like Erhard, MN.😉 The Republic of Whangamomona was formed due to the local district boundaries changing in 1988. Half of the Whangamomona District remained under Taranaki while the other half joined the Manawatu-Wanganui District. The locals weren't too pleased with this and decided to declare their independence, which was successful in making Whangamomona a Republic. In 2018, they celebrated 30 years of independence...wow!
Before we finished the 150ish km drive, we had to stop and find one more geocache. Again, we were successful in our search - despite the spider that was present. 😉 Eventually we arrived at the end of the Forgotten World Highway in Stratford. There was an awesome picture opportunity where we were able to capture the sign with Mt. Taranaki in the background...with the sunset! From Stratford to our Airbnb was about another half an hour drive, made longer due to the fact that we HAD to stop to take more pictures of Mt. Taranaki with the sunset. It was simply gorgeous and like before, difficult to capture. The bugs were out in full force and a couple cars honked at us, but it was worth the stop!
We FINALLY arrived at our Airbnb for the night and met our hosts - a lovely married Kiwi couple. Once we got settled in our room, I drove us into New Plymouth for a quick dinner of $5 Domino's pizza. I gotta say, it was quite delicious! On the way back to the house, tragedy struck. As I was driving, a cat decided to run RIGHT IN FRONT of the car. There was literally nothing I could do to avoid it since it happened so quickly and there was a car behind me. Annika saw it walk across to the other side of the road (where the traffic was going into New Plymouth) so it wasn't dead but....spoiler alert...we saw it the next morning on the road and it was most definitely not alive. 🕱 I'm so sorry cat. 😢 What is NZ doing to me?! That hasn't even happened to me back home!
CLICK >>> Outstanding October: Northern Beaches, Geocaching, & Friends <<<
School was back in session this week after the two weeks of break. Emily had a twin dress-up day and Ava and I hit the beach. The water was still a bit cool for swimming, but that didn't stop her from running along the shore!
Emily & her friend on Twin Day!
Charge!
I only had a four day work week as I took Friday off to get an early start on the weekend with Annika & Clara! Monday, October 22nd, was New Zealand's Labor Day so we already had a three day weekend. Our plan was to drive the Forgotten World Highway, see Mt. Taranaki, visit Elephant Rock and the 3 Sisters, go to some waterfalls, and geocache (of course!). Little did we know the weekend would take a turn for the worse on the last day of our adventure. *insert dramatic sound effects here: dun, dun, dunnnn!!*
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19TH
My northern friends picked me up in the morning and soon we were on our way to our first major stop. We had a few hours of driving because we had to get from Auckland to New Plymouth (5 hours) via the Forgotten World Highway (plus another hour or so). And, of course, we had to make mandatory food and picture stops throughout the day! Our first stop was in Otorohanga - New Zealand's Kiwiana Town. The public bathrooms are "famous" for sporting different Kiwi slang for toilets. This is the first of three pictures I've taken of a public bathroom in NZ...the other two will come in a later blog.😄 We had time to search for one geocache and were successful!
The first find of the trip.
An hour or so more on the road and we were at the beginning of the Forgotten World Highway in Taumarunui. And so began our 150 km drive (between 149-151 km depending on which site you look at online) on State Highway 43. Why were we doing this drive, you may ask? Well it's known as one of the most scenic drives in New Zealand (WOW!) but also as one of the more dangerous drives in New Zealand (YIKES!). How could we not take on this challenging, yet thrilling drive? Also, we wanted to stop in Whangamomona (pronounced "Fawn-gŭ-mō-mōnŭ". Click HERE if you want to hear the proper pronunciation. I'll be honest...I was definitely pronouncing it wrong until I looked it up for this blog!😂
Unfortunately, because of our driving schedule, we couldn't pull over at many of the recommended stops on this road. We did squeeze in a few - the first of which was Nevin's Lookout. Thankfully, we had a gorgeous day with minimal clouds so we could see quite far. In the distance, we even saw the mountains Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe, and Tongariro. Although, to be honest, I'm not sure which was which in the pictures below (notice the snow!).
Continuing on, the curvy road brought us on a roller coaster of a ride uphill and down - eventually to a 12 km section of unpaved road on the Tangarakau Gorge. While driving on this section, we all wondered: A) How long the unpaved road would last, B) Why this section wasn't paved, and C) How slow-going the travel must have been so long ago when the entire road was unpaved. Personally, I felt at home on the gravel. It brought me back to good 'ol Emery Drive.💜 After the unpaved section, we soon came upon the 180m long tunnel, dubbed the "Hobbit Hole." How cool is that?! The interesting fact about this tunnel is that it was built in the 1930's (renovated again in the 1980's) and only has one lane. We stopped at the beginning to take our pictures and to allow a truck to drive through to the other side. Thankfully, there weren't many people traveling the road that day so we had plenty of time to sit, stand, jump, and handstand in the middle of the road! Before checking out the pictures, please watch the following video of our approach to the tunnel. It is perhaps one of my favorite videos of my year here...take a look and have the volume up!
Fun times in the car with these two!
Candid shot of me with the mountains Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe, and Tongariro.
About 20 minutes later, we saw the sign for Whangamomona and a conveniently empty railroad track that was ideal for a few pictures. Into the quiet Republic of Whangamomona we drove before parking in front of the hotel. It is one of those places where you would almost miss it if you blinked...kind of like Erhard, MN.😉 The Republic of Whangamomona was formed due to the local district boundaries changing in 1988. Half of the Whangamomona District remained under Taranaki while the other half joined the Manawatu-Wanganui District. The locals weren't too pleased with this and decided to declare their independence, which was successful in making Whangamomona a Republic. In 2018, they celebrated 30 years of independence...wow!
Inside the hotel we received a stamp in our passports. That's right folks. For $2 you can get a legitimate stamp in your passport from the Republic of Whangamomona! We all also purchased proper Whangamomona passports and can now say we are citizens of this small part of New Zealand. 😄 What a unique experience it was and one I'm glad to have done during my time here. Oh! In case you were wondering, the past presidents of this Republic include a goat, poodle, and turtle...as well as a few humans (currently John Herlihy is the president). Clearly the locals have a sense of humor!
They have money from around the world...and I found the USA!
Once we all became citizens, we walked around for a few minutes and then continued on our way to New Plymouth for the remaining 1.5 hours of driving we had.
A couple final shots of Whangamomona.
While we did take a quick stop to check out the landscape, it wasn't until an hour later we HAD to stop as we could actually see Mt. Taranaki in the distance! It was amazing since it can often be covered by clouds. We took our pictures and a nice gentleman pulled over to take a group shot of us. You all should have heard our excitement during the solid half hour we stayed there enjoying the view of Taranaki.
While the view was cool, it was hard to take a decent picture due to the sun.
Not bad (after cropping out the guy's finger)...thanks stranger!
Before we finished the 150ish km drive, we had to stop and find one more geocache. Again, we were successful in our search - despite the spider that was present. 😉 Eventually we arrived at the end of the Forgotten World Highway in Stratford. There was an awesome picture opportunity where we were able to capture the sign with Mt. Taranaki in the background...with the sunset! From Stratford to our Airbnb was about another half an hour drive, made longer due to the fact that we HAD to stop to take more pictures of Mt. Taranaki with the sunset. It was simply gorgeous and like before, difficult to capture. The bugs were out in full force and a couple cars honked at us, but it was worth the stop!
We made it!
Sunset views of the Mountain.
We FINALLY arrived at our Airbnb for the night and met our hosts - a lovely married Kiwi couple. Once we got settled in our room, I drove us into New Plymouth for a quick dinner of $5 Domino's pizza. I gotta say, it was quite delicious! On the way back to the house, tragedy struck. As I was driving, a cat decided to run RIGHT IN FRONT of the car. There was literally nothing I could do to avoid it since it happened so quickly and there was a car behind me. Annika saw it walk across to the other side of the road (where the traffic was going into New Plymouth) so it wasn't dead but....spoiler alert...we saw it the next morning on the road and it was most definitely not alive. 🕱 I'm so sorry cat. 😢 What is NZ doing to me?! That hasn't even happened to me back home!
The cool lamp we had in our room.
The shock wore off and we were able to get back to the house without any further issues. We spent the rest of the evening relaxing and figuring out our plan for the next day.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 20TH
The morning brought us a cloudy day, which hid most of Mt. Taranaki from view. However, we had plenty of other things to see and do to keep us busy. Before anything happened in the way of sightseeing, we grabbed breakfast at The White Pear Cafe. I had delicious oatmeal and a long black for a well-rounded and filling breakfast. The most memorable thing from the cafe was that the chairs squeaked SUPER loudly when we slid them from the table to sit down...just a bit embarrassing! Next door was a $2 shop where we bought a couple of things and then continued on our way to the Coastal Walkway in New Plymouth. This walkway is 12.7 km and curves along the sea to provide its users with a beautiful view. The main thing we wanted to see on the walkway was the Te Rewa Rewa Bridge. This bridge was built to resemble a breaking wave or the skeleton of a whale. Either way, it was one of the more unique bridges I've seen!
Te Rewa Rewa Bridge
Across the bridge was a geocache and an area where we were able to view the bridge from the side (which really shows why it looks like a whale skeleton).
What do you think? Whale skeleton or a wave breaking?
We meandered along part of the walkway (definitely not the entire 12.7 km though) until we came to an area where another geocache was hidden. Unfortunately we were unable to make the find but we did enjoy the beach and sound of the waves!
At this point, we turned around and walked back to our car...with a minor stop so I could take my classic NZ picture. Despite the clouds, the day was quite nice and warmed up as the day went on.
Did you expect anything less?
Our next activity was...wait for it...rock climbing! Sound a little out of character for us? Maybe so but we knew we'd have an excellent view from the top. The rock's name was Paritutu and before you think we were crazy, it was only about a 15 minute walk/climb to the summit...so nothing TOO strenuous. Initially, it was a bit intimidating but once you got going it was actually fun!
View from the base of Paritutu Rock...
...and Paritutu Rock in the background.
After starting off the climb with some basic wooden steps, we came upon this and continued the rest of the way using the chain as a handrail. Cool, right?
The way down and the way up.
Looking out over the sea.
Sugar Loaf Islands.
Sweet treats.
Cape Egmont Lighthouse.
Group shot!
Up close to the lighthouse...just had to wait for a couple of people to leave in order to capture this shot.
Trivia time! Which city in NZ did I take my first wing picture?
My favorite!💜
The climb was worth the effort because we were rewarded with an incredible perspective over the sea where we saw the Sugar Loaf Islands. Opposite the sea we were able to see a teeny tiny part of Mt. Taranaki...I can only imagine how awesome it looks when there aren't clouds blocking the way. For the first 10-15 minutes or so, we were the only three at the top which was great for taking pictures. We stayed up there for almost an hour before making the trek back down - which wasn't too bad actually.
Looking out over the sea.
Selfie time!
Once we were back at sea level, it was decided that an ice cream stop was mandatory. We did get a bit turned around but ultimately found a place to grab our treats. Boysenberry ice cream anyone? YUM! With sugar in our bodies, we had new energy for the afternoon. Since Mt. Taranaki was still hidden behind the clouds, we looked at this WEBSITE for inspiration on what we could do. A few blogs ago, you may remember reading about a visit to a lighthouse. Well, we chose to go hit up another one since it was located on the most western part of Taranaki. The lighthouse was not busy at all - probably due to the fact that you couldn't go inside. However, we found a couple of geocaches, grabbed some pictures, and saw Mt. Taranaki in the distance (it was becoming more visible!).
If you look to the right of me, you can see Mt. Taranaki in the distance - even most of the summit is visible!
By this point, we were pretty sure we were just not going to be able to see Mt. Taranaki in its entirety. Back to New Plymouth we went to walk around and view some of the street art we had gotten a couple of glimpses of earlier in the day. It's quite amazing how much detail the artists include in their creations - my favorite was the elephant!
While exploring the street art, we also came upon some eels that were, in my opinion, disgusting because: A) They have dead eyes, and B) They're pretty much water snakes. However, feelings aside, they turned out to be a bit interesting to watch and I even touched a couple (gasp!) to see what they felt like - slimy smooth if you were wondering.
We walked around some more - I saw an American flag ✊ and Snapdragons! Sadly, we had another unsuccessful geocache find so we walked back towards where we parked to see if we could make a find there - and we did! A walk along another area of the Coastal Walkway brought us to the Wind Wand - a 48 m tall kinetic sculpture that lights up at night and can bend in the wind.
It was during this time that we noticed Mt. Taranaki was starting to become more visible!😮 To the car we went - in a hurry - and we looked at a map to figure out where a good road would be to take pictures of the Mountain. There was some excitement during this time because we were first going to go to some Botanic Gardens and then decided against it since Mt. Taranaki was more important. Eventually, after many turns, we made it to a gravel road that had a pretty great view of Taranaki. And so began our nearly hour long photo session with the Mountain.🤣 Let's just say I'm going to have a difficult time narrowing down which pictures to use on this blog - and I don't even have all of them yet!
Thanks Clara for the love!
We definitely took MANY more than what I've posted here, but you can see how beautiful the Mountain was and why we were so obsessed with it. At one point, the people living in the house by the road came out to see what three strangers were doing pretty much parked in front of their driveway...no regrets! In case you were wondering, Mt. Taranaki is one of the most symmetrical volcanoes in the world - thus the attraction. Another fun fact is that it was the backdrop for the movie The Last Samurai. The more you know! I'm sure we would have stayed longer to take pictures had the sun not been setting, so back to New Plymouth we drove with cameras full and smiles on our faces. By this point, we were pretty hungry. Annika got Pita Pit (her favorite) and Clara and I grabbed some Burger Fuel (not exactly our favorite but it did sound good). I don't know why, but we decided to park the car and walk to Burger Fuel - which ended up taking longer than expected. Oh well! We definitely got our steps in!
Wait! I didn't talk about how our trip took a turn for the worse, you say? Well don't worry. The adventure will continue on my next blog post, Outstanding October: Part 2 - Elephant Rock, Three Sisters, Waterfalls, and an Arachnid Attack. Excited?
We walked around some more - I saw an American flag ✊ and Snapdragons! Sadly, we had another unsuccessful geocache find so we walked back towards where we parked to see if we could make a find there - and we did! A walk along another area of the Coastal Walkway brought us to the Wind Wand - a 48 m tall kinetic sculpture that lights up at night and can bend in the wind.
It was during this time that we noticed Mt. Taranaki was starting to become more visible!😮 To the car we went - in a hurry - and we looked at a map to figure out where a good road would be to take pictures of the Mountain. There was some excitement during this time because we were first going to go to some Botanic Gardens and then decided against it since Mt. Taranaki was more important. Eventually, after many turns, we made it to a gravel road that had a pretty great view of Taranaki. And so began our nearly hour long photo session with the Mountain.🤣 Let's just say I'm going to have a difficult time narrowing down which pictures to use on this blog - and I don't even have all of them yet!
First stop we took to see Taranaki.
Unique building in New Plymouth.
Safely back at the Airbnb - no animal casualties on this night - we showered and relaxed for the rest of the evening. The dog came and visited us - he especially liked me and decided to join me on my bed as I read. So cute!
Our journey.
Cheers!
Krista
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