06 November 2008

Weekend Trip to New Plymouth and Egmont National Park

Mount Taranaki, hiding her summit behind clouds

A bit too windy at Patea Beach for a morning tea break en route to New Plymouth (From left: Takahiro Hara, Dai Fujino, Kathy Corner and Mina Ueyama)

By Shirley Ghozalli and Kathy Corner. Edited by Moira Blake

At Labour Weekend - 26th and 27th October, Mina Ueyama and Takahiro Hara (2006 students), and Dai Fujino (a 2007 student) went on a trip to New Plymouth, about 4 hours drive from Palmerston North (when you stop at interesting places on the way), and Egmont National Park, south-west of New Plymouth. They were accompanied by EOC staff members, Kathy Corner and Moira Blake.

"The flower garden and Mt Taranaki were beautiful! There were a lot of comfortable and relaxing places in New Plymouth" said Dai who loves to travel around New Zealand.

Kathy Corner reported:

On the Sunday we visited New Plymouth, stopping off at Lake Mangamahoe and (very briefly!) at Patea Beach en route. After lunch at the "Shoestring Backpackers" where we were staying that night, we walked into town and went to the museum. Pukekura Park is a magnificent park of lakes, forest and flowers. We spent a couple of hours wandering around and caught a glimpse of Mt Taranaki, which previously had been obscured by cloud.

On the Monday we packed a lot into our day!! First we drove south along the surf highway to Oakura beach and then on to Ngamamaku, a garden that has gained National recognition as an amazing garden - and amazing it certainly was.

Next stop was the renowned Pukeiti gardens full of magnificent rhododendrons, and also home to two giant trees - a giant fuchsia and a giant rata. We joined a tour of the gardens, which was both informative and amusing. Mina, who loves flowers, took millions of photos! After lunch overlooking the gardens we drove on to Dawson Falls in Egmont National Park.

Everyone enjoyed the Goblin Forest, a high level forest of gnarled and stunted trees. We walked to Wilkies Pool where the stream has carved out natural channels in the rock. Our last attraction for the day was Dawson Falls itself, a waterfall plunging 18 meters over the face of an old lava flow. We left Dawson Falls at 5.45 pm after an exhausting but thoroughly enjoyable day. Amazingly no one fell asleep on the way home - they were all busy chatting!!

We ended the day with a delicious meal at Thai Express in Wanganui and arrived back at IPC at 9.30pm!

Mishima Torii Gate in Pukekura Park, built to commemorate the 10th anniversary Mishima and New Plymouth being sister cities. (From left: Kathy Corner, Moira Blake and Takahiro Hara)

Inside an 800 year-old rata tree at Pukeiti Gardens (From left: Mina Ueyama, Kathy Corner, and Dai Fujino)

Takahiro Hara and Dai Fujino crossing a river in Mt Egmont National Park

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