-Chapter 30- The Timid Mount Taranaki

On 01.01., we went directly to Wanganui, a city halfway to Mount Taranaki. The free campground there was located above the city between two tall viewing towers, which we walked up and down twice. There, we also met our classmate for the second time, who had parked next to us.

The following day, we drove the remaining three hours to Mount Taranaki.

We spent the night at a family-owned campground in a dead zone. The owner was very nice, the campground was okay, and the best part was that we could do laundry for free. We went past the owner's house with our next load of laundry, and I already felt really guilty. When we started the last load, the owner actually approached us. I turned red because I was one hundred percent sure she was going to say, "You can't wash here for the 5th time!", but she just kindly reminded us not to use the right washing machine.

We then experienced probably the strangest situation ever at a free campground. The place was by the sea and in the middle of nowhere, consisting of a beautiful large meadow divided into two sections by a privacy hedge. In our section, there was only an older couple in a caravan and two connected motorhomes, in which a group of six retirees was traveling. We liked the campground, except that it became a little creepy in the evenings. There was no light, and we couldn't see anything except for the windows of the motorhomes. At least we were on a meadow with reasonable people, we thought. At 10:30 pm, we were watching Netflix when we heard shouting from outside. Celina looked out the window but said everything was fine. Only the retirees crawling out of their motorhomes... A few minutes later, it got even louder. This time, when Celina looked out, she said, "Anna, they're naked." It was one of those moments when you can't look away. We watched in disbelief and disgust as the retirees ran around the meadow completely naked, singing and dancing like little children. I think they were playing a drinking game. We didn't want to believe what we were seeing. Then they all hid in the motorhomes and sat naked in a circle at the table. Whenever we looked outside after a few minutes, it was not unlikely that a man was peeing with his back to us at the hedge. Then you would see him, beer belly and all, get back into the motorhome, where a man was dancing closely with his wife. One man was already sitting at the side and sleeping, and they kept singing and swaying... A real retiree nude party.

Most of the time in the Taranaki region, we spent in New Plymouth, the largest city near Mount Taranaki and a real surfer's paradise. One evening, we visited the Festival of Lights, a light festival that takes place every summer in a beautiful park. We really liked it there.

Mount Taranaki is shy. It is covered in clouds most of the time, and you can only imagine that there is a huge, symmetrical volcano in the middle of the country. We spent almost a week in the region and could only see it twice during that time. On the last day, we wanted to get a little closer to the mountain. We drove through nothingness for a whole hour until the road ended in a forest that grows like a wall around Mount Taranaki. There was only a narrow, single-lane road that led through tree-like trees. It looked so strange that we weren't sure if it was the right road, if you could even call it that. Nevertheless, we made our way along the winding path, which we had to follow through the forest for 20 minutes. Finally, we unexpectedly ended up in a crowded parking lot from which several hiking trails started. (The hike to Mount Taranaki is only for experienced hikers, and we are famously not included in that category). We decided to take a short walk to the Dawson Falls. After that, we sat in the car and waited until the mountain finally revealed itself. That actually took a whole hour. It was even cooler when we finally saw it. Then we drove back to Wellington via Wanganui.

To be continued