Majestic Mount Taranaki looms through the early morning’s clouds.
As our time on the shore ended and we got a wee bit tired of watching endangered featherballs, we decided to head up to Mount Taranaki to have a closer look at what has been described as „Enchanted forest“ or „Goblin forest“. For the first time on our travels we had actually booked a place to stay in advance, which was well worth the effort. Supposedly we would be staying in an Eco Inn, that apart from growing organic veggies also produces it’s own electricity and has a tree house. So we were highly motivated to get there..
After a long drive through tedious little towns we finally reached Stratford, and being a fan of the strange, misplaced and pathetic I immediatly took a liking to the design of their inner City shopping area. Nowhere else in New Zealand can there be found a Glockenspiel as startling and beautiful as in Stratford. It’s fachwerk tower rises at least one story above the anoying buildings, and once every day the casual onlooker gets treated to scenes from Romeo and Juliet with accompanying music. Alas Melli and Lorna would have nothing to do with this attraction and we left, glocken unheard.
Half an hour later the Eco Inn turned out to be really nice, although of course it was under construction work when we arrived tired and spent. Once we had our luggage stowed away we went up Taranaki and had a walk through the forest while our car got a little hot half way up and let go of some steam and green liquid on the parking lot. The Goblin Forest is really beautiful, trees at the high altitude look gnawed and withered, and are not much taller than 4 or 5 meters. Moss and ferns grow everywhere.
An elf or so walking through the enchanted forest.
Night found us to be the only guest, so we had the place to ourselves and were able to do some cooking again, only interrupted by the sound of a quarterpound of beetle flying against the window.
Finally homecooked icecream!
A huhu beetle (Prionoplus reticularis) makes a loud noise when crashing against glass windows. It can also bite you in the finger if you try to pick it up, so don’t be fooled by it’s cute & fuzzy looks.
Early morning again, doing the dishes with a view.
A new dawn brought with it a new chance for baby blue (our faithful car) to proof its worth as vehicle for mountainous terrain. Another drive through Stratfort, where we asked about the leaking coolant and were informed that the seel of the coolant might need a new cap. So we drove to New Plymouth to get one and back to the garage to have it replaced. On our way up the mountain the new cap worked fine, but the radiator burst in stead, leaving us with a bit more of a problem and a mess half way up Mt. Taranaki. Probably not for the last time it is time again to say blessings to the AA who promtly got our car out of it’s misery (though they did not shoot it). Back in Stratford we got a replacement car just in time not to see the famous glockenspiel again, much to my regreat.
At this altitude trees are small, clouds hang on the mountain side and cars stop working.
If your radiator does this, it is time to say goodbye and get a new one.
It“s not easy driving up another car on planks, but Mell can do it.
Mountain flowers for baby blue.
The next day we went for a relaxing drive along the coast, while baby blue was still in repair. We drove up the Tasman side to find some rocks on a beach, an organic microbrewery and another beach. The following photographs document our success in reaching each of these goals.
This is were our beer came from, and some port as well…
rocks next to the water, almost as planned…just a bit to high tidish.
Me sitting in sandals on a beach, proving that we have actually seen one.
Back at the cars it was not quite ready, so we had a little more time in the beautiful village of Stratfort to shop, have a coffee and at last go to see the Glockenspiel! Afterit was over and I was finally able to stop laughing, everybody was still thrilled by it’s ingenuity and grandeur, giving a little town of a couple hundred the flair of an international metropolis. Anyway I took the following two pictures of the Glockenspiel in action, but one has been manipulated on the computer, can you see which?
