New Plymouth

Hey again.
At least this time I have something a bit more interesting to talk about - my trip last weekend to New Plymouth.

Last Friday I had intended going to Tauranga and going to a breakfast meeting about stress, but in the end I decided against it because I would have had to go there from work on Thursday night (ie after 11pm) and then get about approximately at 6am and fight with the Papamoa-Tauranga traffic to get to the Tauranga CBD. So I decided instead to go to New Plymouth, somewhere I had never been before, and had intended to see for a while. (Quite ironic that it was about stress isn't it! lol)

I left about 1pm on the Friday, after sorting stuff out. Stopped at Otorohanga and saw the Kiwihouse, another thing I hadn't been to before... and then carried on down to NP. I got there about 5.20, but my map was crap, and my sense of direction was even worst, so it took me about an hour to find the youth hostel.
The next day I got up about 8.15am, as I didn't want to waste anymore time (I should have left Hamilton earlier on Friday and then could have seen more stuff). The weather was bad, but I decided it was the day to visit the museum and local towns. 3 of my 4 Grandparents originated from the 'Naki so I wanted to see where they had come from. First stop was Inglewood for the FunHo museum (FunHo made steel toys for sandpits etc) then drove through Stratford and Eltham (Eltham was my paternal Grandmother's birthplace) and then stopped in Hawera (maternal Grandmother's birthplace) and climbed the water tower, and visited Dairyland. Gutted that there was no free cheese! I decided to take the surf highway back to NP, around the otherside of the mountain. That was OK. I was tired by the end of it all, the down-side of a break is that you can do too much rather than resting. On the Sunday it was fine so I climbed the big rock, had a brief look at the gardens, went to a cool lake and headed home, stopping at Waitomo caves museum for a look.
This weekend - I am going to Candyland at Taupiri, as I have never been there. Tonight I am catching up with some friends that have been away at Uni etc and hanging with my sister and tomorrow I am doing my First aid refresher course. I have just dropped my parents off at the airport (had to get up at 5.30am) at least I can do some productive stuff today instead of sleeping.