NZ14:Days 26 & 27~Dec 15th &16th: Methven to New Plymouth via Christchurch, & a car-less day

Day 26. Methven to New Plymouth 
I woke naturally before 8, so got up, showered, & had a kiwi & a coffee for breakfast.
As I needed less than 7Kg in the green wheelie for the carry on, I jiggered about with the packing, & decided to leave some of the stones I'd been carrying around since Paraparaumu in the garden at Big Tree.
I'm sure they'll be happy there: Lee's a nice bloke ;-p
The previous night I'd received instructions about a mall on the outskirts of Christchurch where I might find a charger, so turned right at the Blue Pub towards Lauriston.
Just outside Lauriston village I turned left onto Thompson's Track. I didn't know at the time that I'd be driving the whole length of it in Feb 2016. It's a great shortcut between the SH1 at Rakaia and the SH72 at Mayfield. It saves about 14K by not going via Ashburton.
Anyway, I'm ahead of myself!  .  .  .  .  .
I filled up at Rakaia ~ thinking it would be dearer than $197/l nearer the airport. Then I went left & north onto the SH1 towards Hornby & The Hub shopping mall I was looking for.
On the way up, I drove over that bridge across the Rakaia, & noticed how straight the SH1 was. I also noticed that it had a railway running alongside most of the way. I'd been in too much of a rush when driving north from Oamaru in 2011 to be rubbernecking as I drove, & it had been misty most of the way up.
The Hub is just south of Christchurch on the main road, & has free parking. As I was pretty early, I spent more than an hour there. My flight wasn't until 5 to 6, & it was barely half ten, so I meandered round the shops, bought food for a "2nd Breakfast" & the journey to New Plymouth, plus a charger for the camera battery, a new usb & a NZ adapter for the laptop plug.
I ate the 2nd breakfast in the sun & had a long black in one of the coffee shops offering seats outside.
Unlike in the UK, sitting outside to eat/drink in NZ doesn't necessarily mean you sit in other people's smoke, so no wafting was required while I drank my coffee & ate an absolutely yummylicious, dark chocolate, florentine.
From The Hub, it was fairly straightforward to get to Ace, so I filled up completely with $5 worth (it was $195/l at Hornby, so I'd been wrong), & went & lay in a grassy area across the road from the Ace depot for 40 min. of sudoku & sleep in the sun.
All was OK with car car, so I said goodbye to it. We'd done a lot of miles together since Greymouth ~ about 1,700K!
Ace gave me a lift to the airport at 1445, & when I weighed the green wheelie on the AirNZ scales, it was 7.7Kg. 
Bum :-/
That meant another re-pack was in order, so I had a brew, ate a load of the fruit I was carrying in my 2 bumbags, & transferred what I could from the wheelie into the bumbags! As you're not supposed to take several bags onboard, I hid the bumbags under the hoodie I was wearing round my waist.
It was a cunning plan I was to employ in NZ 2016 as well! Watch this space for details, but not too closely, as I'm still exceedingly behind, blogging-wise.
The previous evening I had decanted the pinot noir into yesterday's ginger beer bottle, so ~ to anyone watching, I appeared to be swigging Bundaberg, not a nice red ;-p
My flight was at 1755, so I wandered around the airport shops for a bit & eventually went aboard to a seat at the port-side window.
I really enjoyed the flight because the sun was westering & throwing the mountains below in great relief, & I had an awesome view from my seat :-)
Sadly, with no juice at all in the Lumix, there are no photos, so I just have memories of my 1st glimpse of Taranaki from the air.
A bloke in the seat in front was clicking away, so I gave him my card & asked him to E me some photos, but he didn't :-(
Because NP airport is quite a way north of town, & there was no public transport, I was being picked up by someone from the digs - Ariki Backpackers, & Sean introduced himself promptly. He said the shuttle-bus was outside & went to wait with it while I waited for my ruckie which had gone in the hold. While waiting, I went to Ladies where I stoopidly managed to dip the hood of the hoodie round my waist into the loo. Yuk!
Fortunately, a kind Security guy got me a big plastic bag for it. Cheers, mate :-)
It's only about 15 min. between the airport & Ariki Backpackers, but on the way I established that Sean hated soccer. 
A man after my own heart ;-p
You can't stop outside Ariki for long, so Sean dropped me off & I checked in. With it being so late, there was only a top bunk left :-(, but I dumped my bags, & took my loo-y hoodie & the pants I would be travelling home in down to the laundry.
While walking around the hostel I noticed a distinct smell of the sea. Lovely :-)
I asked the Ariki Manager, Dave, if I could swap to a bottom bunk & he said I could the next day as most in my dorm would be leaving. The next crew were arriving on Wednesday, but by that time I should be sleeping on the mountain again.
It had been another fairly long day, so I hit the sack at just after 9pm. The sun had mostly set by that time, & I couldn't see the mountain from my bed.
Ah well, to quote Scarlett ~ tomorrow is another day.

Day 27. New Plymouth on foot 
I can't find any notes about the 16th, but the photos should jog my memory!
I had no car, but saw from a map at Ariki that there was a coastal walkway, so I dressed in bikini & shorts, packed a bumbag, grabbed a towel & a bit of food, & headed to the prom ~ barely 100m from Ariki's front door. The 1st pic looks north, but I had plans to walk south & find
somewhere to lie in the sun & read the book I'd borrowed from Ariki's library.

There was a long thing sticking up on the prom which I discovered was the New Plymouth Wind Wand, & as with the Fir in Queenstown Gardens, it was quite tricky to get it all in shot.
This is what Wiki has to say about it:

The Wind Wand is a 48-metre kinetic sculpture located in New Plymouth, New Zealand. The sculpture includes a 45-metre tube of red fibreglass, and was made to designs by artist Len Lye. To residents, it is one of the main icons of New Plymouth. During the night, the Wind Wand lights up.

Costing in excess of $300,000 it was originally installed in December 1999 along with the Coastal Walkway, it had to be taken down within weeks. After repairs it was reinstalled in June 2001. The red fibreglass tube stands vertical in still air, but bends in the wind.

The Wind Wand is constructed out of fibreglass and carbon fibre. It weighs around 900 kg and has a diameter of 200 mm. The Wind Wand can bend at least 20 m. The red sphere on the top contains 1,296 light-emitting diodes.

This one was taken with Ariki
Backpackers just behind me

Turning south I detoured slightly into a small mall to get some more scran, then set off down the walkway along the sea front.

My first view that morning of
Taranaki through the trees

It was a lovely walk, but the tide was in so I couldn't get down to sea level for about 1/2 an hour.
I contented myself with pics of the colourful plants I found by the path.

Eventually, after walking for about 2K, I came to a semi-circular beach within the breakwater.

The rock was flat enough to lay a towel down

Walking down it I found a suitable flattish rock & set out my sunbathing platform.
It was warm enough to sunbathe, so I did, keeping myself occupied with sudoku & the Ariki book for about an hour before turning over to see Taranaki towering above the pohutakawa & the rata.
Awesome :-D

The orange thing's a kayak

The tide had gone out quite a bit, but it was still deep where I was on the breakwater, so I dived off the rocks & went for a swim.
The water was gorgeous & I spent quite a while splashing around before swimming beach-wise & walking back along the breakwater to dry off a bit.
There'd been quite a few kayakers moseying about in the harbour which had added a bit of colour to the scene.
After finishing the book (I'm a fast reader), I set of to find Chaddy's Charters who do boat trips out around the little islands just off shore.
I had wanted to book in advance, but they said it would be better to book closer to the day as they would have a better idea of the weather then. They didn't take punters out if the sea was going to be too rough.
As I was due to spend a couple of days on Taranaki at the DOC hostel I'd used in 2011, and hoped to drive out to Whangamomona while I was at that side of the mountain, I got myself pencilled-in for the 20th, & set off back into town.
I must've had something for tea, & I think I bought it (& some more wine) from the little mall I'd passed that morning, but with no notes, I have no idea what I ate.
Knowing me it was local fish or steak :-q
However, I do remember being told about a light show at the local park/botanical garden, Pukekura Park, so I walked up there after tea.

The entrance to the Festival of Lights, Pukekura Park

There were lights in the trees & over the walkways, & a surprising number of people wandering about.

I think of this as the "Singing Ringing Tree"
It didn't sing or ring, but was very fairy-like

It was still light when I got there, but the trees overhead shut out most of the evening sun, & I had a lovely wander in the darkening wood.

Spooky-looking jellyfish lights

It was pretty late, but there were loads of families with small kids enjoying the fairy glens, & the sound of birdsong coming from speakers dotted around.

The kids in this boat were singing in Maori.
It went perfectly with the atmosphere that evening

I heard singing & went to look for it to find it was a group of teenagers in a rowing boat on the lake. One of the girls had a lovely voice, & her song really evoked the woodland experience. She was singing in Maori, but it could've been Elvish, the woodland scene was so perfect :-)

A light/waterfall

On  the return leg of my circular walk round the lake I came across a huge tree. I didn't know what it was until I E'd the Friends Of Pukekura about it in March 2017, but it is spectacular.

The Moreton Bay Fig
You can tell how huge this tree is by the
steps running up past it on the left

A helpful member of the Friends called Elise told me it was a Moreton Bay Fig (Ficus macrophylla), & apparently it is the only Moreton Bay Fig in Pukekura Park, & this link https://goo.gl/S4dOMp shows Francis Arden may have been given it after he requested donations of plants for the park. It is believed to have been planted in May 1895!

Check out page 73 (pf 116) of this link as well:~ https://goo.gl/icJSq7  If you find the para, you'll see that ~ even in 1925, when the report was written, the Fig was said to be "a massive tree". I'm so glad I saw it, & will go & say hello in the daylight if I'm ever back in New Plymouth. 

The final pic of the day. You can't tell from
this snapshot, but the colours of the
lights changed every few seconds

By the time I started walking back to Ariki, it was dark, so I took a different route back & did a bit of window shopping.

I was due to have my car delivered at 0900, & I needed to be ready to roll, so I put the clothes & stuff I didn't need for 2 days in my ruckie, & Dave put it in the bag-store until my return on the 19th. The green wheelie was coming with me.

Then it was bed.

Considering this blog has been written without any notes, and 28 months afterwards, I don't think I did too bad!

OAO