We are now at New Plymouth in Taranaki. NZ

The journey from Taupo took us through Lord of the Rings landscapes. We followed huge hills and gorges with cliffs, through the “middle earth” of North Island to the coast at. Here we stopped to see the 3 Sisters. We were lucky the tide was out and perfect to view them. They are 3 stacks out to sea and you can reach them at low tide.

You walk along the river bed and out to the sea. We had help climbing down to the river. 2 men held out their arms to help us down over huge boulder rocks. We walked along the sand. Surprisingly it is black volcanic sand,as the cliffs are white and yellowy.

We had to paddle over the stream to reach the beach and then as we turned the corner we saw the 3 sisters rocks ( it looked about 5 sisters to me!) There are arches, caves and stacks to explore. The reflections in the wet sand were lovely.

did you see grandad?

“On the North Taranaki coast, near Tongaporutu, you can see two (formerly three) 25 metre rock formations known as the Three Sisters. Another spectacular formation called Elephant Rock once stood alongside the sisters, before losing its trunk to erosion in 2016.

Interestingly, there were four sisters at the turn of the century, but the sea is claiming them one at a time.”

It reminded us of at the end of the Golden Bay in the South Island. We stayed there quite a while until we felt the tide had turned and was coming in quickly so we walked back along the river to the boulders and up to the carpark.

The journey from here still was very picturesque as we weaved through the hillsides. As we again reached the coast it was flat and lots of farms with cattle mostly.

New Plymouth has a lot of things to offer and after we had checked in to our motel we went to the newish bridge by

“New Plymouth’s Te Rewa Rewa pedestrian/cycle bridge is a tied arch bridge and has a clear span of almost 70 metres and is part of the award-winning New Plymouth Coastal Walkway.

Spanning the Waiwhakaiho River, its iconic form represents the sacred relationship between the land, sea and wind with the Ngati Tawhirikura tribe.

Te Rewa Rewa Bridge opened on June 5, 2010 “

Although the visibility towards the Taranaki volcano wasn’t too good, we got some good photos. We are going to go back at other times to see if we can capture the iconic image we wish to photograph.

Our time in NZ is beginning to slip away. 3 nights here and then 1 in Hamilton on the way to Auckland area for a week before we fly out 30th March.

It seems a long time since Christmas in Thornbury! Xxxx

I copied and pasted info today, it was much easier 😅🤗🤗💕💕💕💕