Wednesday 18th January 2023
We started the day by going to Mount Victoria summit, for stunning panoramic views over Wellington.
Today we’re making the long drive to New Plymouth, so we’ll need to have a couple of stops along the way. When we saw a sign for Lewis Farm, a strawberry and raspberry farm that does fresh fruit ice cream, it felt like the ideal opportunity. The fruit is all grown in multilayered polythene tunnels, which appeared to be an interesting yet effective way of growing them (there were informational signs explaining a bit about how and why they do this). We were a bit disappointed that the advertised raspberry ice cream was not available (we’ve already had fresh fruit strawberry ice cream in Aukland so were eager to give the raspberry a go), but the strawberry ice cream we shared was delicious and a very generous portion.
We got back on the road and drove through beautiful countryside and rolling hills. I love all the purple flowers at the side of the road. I’ve no idea what they’re called but have come to associate them with the North Island of New Zealand.
After a couple more hours, we stopped again, this time in Hāwera. We were parked near the water tower, where there’s a free car park and public toilets. We had a short walk then picked up a steak pie at Andersons Pie Shop & Caterers. It’s got a 4.7 star rating on google maps and we weren’t disappointed. I can safely say it’s the best pie we’ve had this trip (closely followed by the steak and mushroom pie we had in
We sat outside on a park bench to eat, then it was back to the car to resume our journey to New Plymouth. We drove past Mount Taranaki, which looked quite spectacular with its peak rising above the clouds.
Once we reached New Plymouth. we checked into our hotel (ASURE Abode On Courtenay Motor Inn) and dropped off our bags. It’s another quite basic motel, but with huge rooms and very clean and comfortable. After dropping our bags, we headed out to The Hour Glass for an early dinner. We ordered the tapas platter, prawn skewers, and beef skewers. The platter was good value at $35, but was pretty typical fried food. The skewers however were exceptional (though a bit pricey).
There were still a few hours of daylight remaining, so we picked up a bottle of wine from the supermarket then walked to Pukekura Park. It’s quite a large and impressive park, so we had a slow amble around before relaxing on the Hatchery Lawn (one of the only areas where alcohol consumption was allowed) to enjoy our wine. We were surprised by how few people were on the Hatchery Lawn, we had it pretty much to ourselves for most of the time.
When darkness fell, the Festival of lights began so we had another walk around the park. It looked very different at night, but quite magical with all the light installations. I’m very glad we visited New Plymouth, as it was definitely a worthwhile trip.
By the time we’d walked around the park and seen all the light installations it was getting quite light, so we retired back to our hotel.
Emma and Pete’s Asian Adventure 