As you will see from the series of photos below, most of the day was spent viewing Mount Taranaki from every possible angle. We covered a lot of miles and it was dark when we arrived in Whanganui, so unfortunately we didn’t spend much time there.
Mount Taranaki in the morning with an irresponsible pedestrian.The very cone-shaped Mount TaranakiWe drove 25 km along a winding steep country road to the North Egmont Visitor Centre on the north side of Mount Taranaki. From there we hiked for another 20 minutes to a lookout. Great view, but it was hot!Back down near the visitor centre was another trail called The Kamahi Loop, but I prefer its other name: The Goblin Trail. It was a very lush forest walk, where all the trees were covered in a deep green moss. Like the skin of a goblin.The trees were straight out of a fantasy novel. Pick your favorite mythical creature and that’s his home right there.Beautiful by day, but at night I’m sure it would be a little scary with the branches all looking like scraggly limbs.After our hike we drove to the nearby Lake Mangamahoe, which is known for its picturesque scenery and one of the few spots where you can get a shot of Mount Taranaki with a lake in the foreground. In the 20 minutes we were at this spot, we had about 1 minute to take a photo without a big cloud in front. Patience pays off!This is a photo of us pretending to leave the camera behind while we go for a walk. It’s from the east side of Mount Taranaki, and again involved driving up a long and winding road.We had beautiful weather, which apparently was a rarity according to a local we passed along the way.Here’s the same irresponsible pedestrian posing in front of the east face of Mount Taranaki.Still at Mount Taranaki, but this time on the West face, where we walked along a trail that led to this waterfall, called Dawson Falls.A closeup of Dominique in front of Dawson Falls.The following morning, in Whanganui (by the way, it’s pronounced Fanganui: the “wh” is pronounced with an “f” in New Zealand), we climbed the towns most redeeming feature, the War Memorial Tower. It offered great views of the town. Too bad the town was not great to view.Here’s the Whanganui War Memorial Tower from the bottom. All that’s missing is Rapunzel.On our way to Wellington, we stopped in Palmerston North, where they had the country’s only Rugby Museum. Lovely place, which was partly because we were the only ones there and had the place to ourselves.The museum was in an arts centre, and there was a guitar lying next to a stage set up in the main hallway. Since we were the only ones there, I had the courage to go and play some tunes for the first time in months!
Next up is Kaitoke Regional Park, home of Rivendell! We didn’t actually visit the park on this date, but since it’s located between Whanganui and Wellington, and that our Wellington entry will be packed with two weeks worth of content, I thought it better to include it here.
The map of Rivendell, or at least where things used to be located.The Rivendell portion is actually a little 5 minute walk from the car park and represents only a fraction of the size of the actual Kaitoke Regional Park, which we hiked through. It was a beautiful forest, with large rata and rimu trees sprinkled throughout.The large rimu trees were indeed very large and majestic, and one can easily assume that they were the inspiration for the talking Ents in Lord of the Rings.A close-up of a fern about to unspiral its leavesAlthough most of the set where Rivendell was filmed had returned to natural forest, the production team did erect a permanent gateway arch for fans. Doing a Google image search of “Kaitoke Rivendell” will show how popular it is with Lord of the Rings fans.Dominique is posing in the exact place where Frodo pondered whether he should embark on his adventure. After enduring the cold weather of New Zealand, Dominique was coincidentally having similar thoughts.Apparently I’m slightly shorter than Aragorn. I always thought Gandalf was taller.Speaking of Gandalf: YOU SHALL NOT PASS!
