Saturday, March 9: Sunny but a little cool to being with
Hiking: 16.8 km
Paul’s
Breakfast was very laid back. My Japanese co-inhabitant, Taro, was off surfing very early and returned as I was finishing some toast.
After that some shopping had to be done (fruit, something to put on some sandwiches, and some lemonade), then a visit to the i-site revealed two shuttles that would take me up and (hopefully) back down the mountain. Taranaki Mountain Shuttle, whose website I had seen yesterday and which is an absolute disaster is unfortunately the one I had to choose. I say unfortunately because communication is not their forte, and the other company (Mountain Shuttle/Cruise NZ tours) also has a later option for the journey up. In the course of the day I managed to arrange with the the gent from TMS via facebook that I will be picked up @ 7:00 from the nearest street corner and will still have to try to determine when I might be back.
Had a look for airbnb places for the return trip, and one place is within 1 km of here that was available.
Slide Show
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Had one of my mandarins to begin with, then had lunch of two rounds of toasted sandwiches, the turkey hat I had bought, and some tomato relish. The day was coming along so fine that the New Plymouth Coastal Walkway was on the plan, first to the southern end (couldn’t find the motorcamp of 2010) and then all the way to Rewarewa Bridge. No view of the mountain as that is where the weather is happening. But got some brackets of the bridge which I hope are not entirely spoilt by passersby.
Interactive Map
Back here booked the next place, the bus to Taupo, and tried updating the rawopint config files to something usable. As I discovered on the net last night the shuttles to Orakei Korako included tours of everything else as well; and the Huka Falls and Aratiatia can definitely be walked, so it looks like two nights there. Perhaps the i-site knows of a dedicated shuttle just to Orakei Karako which might also be cheaper.
Time for dinner. The first Indian place (Kathakali, 39A Devon Street East) I chose had no menu on display and on inspecting the menu once inside had no Chicken Tikka, the second (India Today, 40 Devon Street East) prominently displayed either out-of-date prices or the lunch menu, which was not awe-inspiring either. However they did have Chicken Tikka, together with naan for $18, which was OK. Waitress seemed to think I might die of starvation by only taking a one-half portion, but it was ample, and cabbage and onion are sufficient vegetables.
Short interlude @ Paul’s for tooth-brushing and picking up the camera to see if there was anything to shoot as it grew dark. The Wind Wand does have a light on top of it, so I hope that picture comes to something. The very thin crescent moon was shot a bit later closer to home.
I also contacted Magnus O’Grady about his Cliffs & Caves kayak tour in the Bay of Islands starting March 26 in the hope of getting discounts for the huts and paying in cash. Was hoping for about 10% and was pleasantly surprised when he offered me 30% as a KASK member (which I am not, but who knows). That puts things into perspective.
