In 4 weeks New Plymouth ...
បោះពុម្ពផ្សាយ: 26.02.2018
ជាវសំបុត្រព័ត៌មាន
... we worked in the hostel 'Sunflower Lodge' with very nice colleagues. Almost all backpackers from Israel, Finland or the UK. We cleaned in the mornings for two hours, six days a week and had the rest of the day free. The work wasn't difficult, but after a week we both didn't feel like doing it anymore, because the work became very routine and quickly boring. Nevertheless, we had a good time in New Plymouth, although I'm glad I don't have to sleep in dormitories anymore.
... we ate too much McDonald's. But it's mean when it's right on the way, next to the supermarket, and the weather here requires ice cream and cold drinks every day. Actually, it's not our fault ...
... we were at Cape Egmont. Basically just a lighthouse by the water, which wasn't that spectacular overall. Theoretically, you should be able to see Mount Taranaki in the background, but most of the time we only had clouds in front of the mountain.
... we were at the Brooklin Zoo. It's free and tiny. Besides farm animals, there were also monkeys and birds. Considering that we naturally didn't use the zoo parking lot, but walked up the mountain in felt-like 40 degrees, we were hoping for more. But it was still nice.
... we had a picnic at Lake Mangamahoe. The lake has become my favorite place in New Plymouth. Really beautiful there, never too crowded, and if you're lucky, you can have a pretty good view of Mount Taranaki (plus, we found Dutch cookies, which was a small highlight of the day!).
... we were at the Te Rewa Rewa Bridge. Again, we should have had a pretty good view of Mount Taranaki, but we had the pleasure of clouds again.
... we climbed the Paritutu Rock. There's no other way to describe it. In the parking lot, we saw everyone around us putting on hiking shoes and carrying backpacks to walk to the rock. Hannah with her handbag and Converse, and me with my cheap, unworn shoes thought, "Nope." If only we had worn proper shoes. The first ten minutes were just stairs, but then we had to actually climb. Without any safety measures. On the way there, I had already said goodbye to my life and didn't want to think about having to go down this path again. But the view from the top was really beautiful (at least towards the sea, on the other side, there was just an industrial area), and we took photos with a New Zealand flag. It took weeks for us to find it...
... we tried to find the Dawson Falls. If you drive up the Mount Taranaki quite a bit, you'll pass various hiking trails. One of them is supposedly leading to the Dawson Falls. There are also Wilkies Pools nearby, where you can swim in fresh alpine water. So, we set off with flip-flops and swimsuits. Of course, only perfectly equipped hikers were around us again. We found the falls, but no pools. So, we carried our swimsuits for an hour through the forest, and as Hannah repeatedly pointed out: flip-flops are not made for hiking.
... we visited the Tawhiti Museum. It sounded pretty cool on the flyer, telling the history of New Plymouth and Taranaki. When we arrived, we had to choose a part of the museum, each costing $15. We chose the part that we had seen in the flyer. It was set up like a water ride. Through a dark tunnel, we passed holes in the walls with dolls sitting in them. Hannah immediately thought of the Berlin Dungeon, and I hate horror rides, so we were just waiting for someone to jump out and run back to the car as quickly as possible. But that didn't happen. Instead, we were greeted by a nice man who told us a bit about the history and then put us in a boat with another man. The boat then took us through different landscapes, each portraying the history of Taranaki with figures, similar to Madame Tussauds. Pretty cool, but not really worth the $15. It cost us more to get there ...
... we were at the horse racecourse across from the hostel. There are seven races there each year, and one of them happened to be during our time there. I didn't really understand it, and I still wonder why they need jockeys. The horses can run just fine without them ... my theory was immediately confirmed when a jockey fell off the horse right after the start, and the horse still participated in the race. And not even slowly! But it was cool to experience that. At the beginning, we had to show our IDs to get our wristbands: alcohol allowed or not allowed. When the guy saw our passports, he just said "Germans!" in a tone as if we had brought Hitler with us. But he let us in anyway xD
... we went to the Festival of Lights. It was held in the park right behind the racecourse, and all the trees, waterfalls, and boats were illuminated with music and food. Very beautiful!
... we celebrated Waitangi Day. It's the founding day of New Zealand. In New Plymouth, there was a family festival with live music. We really liked the last band, Shady Rudy. Unfortunately, they only have a Facebook page. But it was very nice for the two hours we were there.
... we visited the Whitecliffs, saw the way leading there, and immediately turned around xD Instead, we had lunch, played card games, and went to the cinema to watch Maze Runner. We both liked it, although we were confused for a while. I somehow felt like I hadn't seen the second film completely.
(Going up and down 10 km wasn't worth the view for us. The rocks in the parking lot were nice, though)
... we had flea infestation again. This time, they didn't itch, but the bites increased every day, so we finally went to the pharmacy and asked what it could be. Ta-da! Fleas. We told the hostel owner about it, and after some discussion, she promptly (well, after a longer discussion) moved us out of the dorm room and into a private room to fumigate our dorm room. The bites quickly decreased, and we had to move back to another dorm room. That room was a mega hole. Even when it was cloudless outside and we opened the curtains, it was dark in the room.
... we repeatedly spoiled our appetite for dinner with double cheese pizza from Pizza Hut as a 'snack'. But it was delicious!
... I went to the cinema again to watch 'Call me by your name'. I read the book on the flight there, and I thought it was pretty good. Some scenes were a bit
but overall, the film was pretty good, and the soundtrack is really beautiful! The film didn't play in a regular cinema, but in a gallery, which looked pretty cool from what I saw.
... we celebrated my birthday. Thanks to the fleas, I was able to spend it in a private room and take the day off. In the 30 seconds I went to the toilet in the morning, Hannah decorated the table and there were gifts as well. Appropriately, a large bar of chocolate of the kind that I only eat here, and the first Harry Potter book with the new cover that I liked so much! After Hannah finished work, we wanted to make waffles. But there's no ready-to-use batter for it here, and we couldn't make the quark waffles because we couldn't find quark. So, what did we do? We used pancake batter ... who knows if we can still call it waffles xD (Yes, we are aware that we could have simply used a different recipe.) We ate them with cream, Hershey's Kisses, and Reese's Pieces, and they were delicious ... after two "waffles," we were extremely full. In the evening, we went to Little Glutton for dinner. It's a restaurant we had passed several times, and it looked really good. We reserved a table for my birthday and had a very good meal!
... we had a day at the beach. Quite little if you consider that we live near four beaches. For our beach day, we chose Back Beach, which is right next to Paritutu Rock and which we thought was beautiful during that hike. But of course, we didn't consider that tides also play a role at such a beach, and because of high tide, we couldn't reach the ocean. Or at least we couldn't lay down there. So, we stayed up top, but it was still nice. We might have even seen a dolphin there, we're not quite sure. But it had fins and looked quite similar to a dolphin if it wasn't one. In the evening, we drove back again to watch the sunset after a snack. It took a while, but then the clouds actually mostly cleared away. I stole the pictures from Hannah, because she has a proper camera with her.
... I went to the cinema for the third time. This time to watch 'The Shape of Water'. It wasn't a bad movie, but some scenes were just ... weird.
... we experienced Tropical Storm Gita. When I was going to the cinema, I was already wondering why it was so windy. Really windy. At times, I was glad to have the traffic light to hold onto, so I wouldn't fly away. Trailers were already rolling across the parking lots. Branches were falling down everywhere, and the sand gave me a nice peeling. The next morning, we read about Gita. A few hours later, we received the warning on our phones to not drink tap water anymore and to boil any water that is used. Due to a water pipe destroyed by a fallen tree, no drinking water can be distributed in Taranaki. Which is great when you mainly live off tap water. Countdown quickly sold out of water, Pack'n'Save gets a truckload of water every day, and there are signs all over the hostel asking not to drink anything.
On the same day, we went hiking on Mount Taranaki again until we were surprised by a shower. We quickly got very wet and turned back. We looked a bit like hobgoblins with our backpacks under our jackets.
By the way, regarding the weather or the differences between Germany and New Zealand, there's also a good video that we can agree with on everything.
... we finally gave Flo a thorough cleaning. With cleaning supplies and a vacuum cleaner in the hostel, we had a cleaning day and cleaned, sorted, and packed. Now it looks presentable again.
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