Hamilton, Raglan, New Plymouth [December 17 - 23]

On December 16th I arrived back in Auckland from the Bay of Islands and arranged my trip to the west coast of the North Island. Hamilton (an afternoon), Raglan (3 nights) and New Plymouth (3 nights). And the weather changed for the better.


The Waikato River in Hamilton, New Zealand's largest inland city.


Waikato River.


Silver Ferns. The symbol of New Zealand. Legend tells that Maori people used to turn the leaves upside down so that the moon would reflect in them (the bottom of the leaves is silver) so they could find their way home.


Me, chilling at the Waikato River.


Kurt (from the USA) and Rich (from Canada) - two fellow backpackers.


The beach where I surfed (!) for the first time in my life! It was ace!


New Plymouth beach.


Twilight hours...


Along the coast of New Plymouth they have a coastal walkway where you can ride a bike as well.


Mount Taranaki. This volcano is so evenly shaped that it resembles mount Fuji and was used in the filming of the movie The Last Samurai.


About 30 km along the Forgotten World Highway lies the little village (population: 40) of Whangamomona. They declared themselves independent and became a republic. We did indeed buy a passport. Heaps of fun!

'
The hotel where you could buy your passport.


:)


The Dawson Falls near Mount Taranaki.


A church in New Plymouth.


Mount Taranaki seen from the Pukekura Park.
In this park there was a festival of lights as shown in the pictures below.







And that was New Plymouth. The next day I traveled onwards to Wanganui. More about that in my next blog.