New Plymouth

Mt Taranaki

The wind wand in New Plymouth

After Waitomo, we decided to carry on down the west coast of North Island, to New Plymouth. New Plymouth is mainly known for it's gas production in New Zealand, but there are some pretty nice beaches and of course Mt Taranaki which can be seen for pretty much everywhere (we thought this was Mt. Doom, from Lord of the Rings, but it's not....just a "look alikey". This is a dormant volcano, which last erupted in 1755, and has a 2518m summit. We were going to do some walking, or possibly some hill climbing, but the day we were going to do it, it was chucking it down.

We also saw the Wind Wand, which is a bright red 45 metre carbon fibre tube, with a light globe at the top. This was designed by Len Lye (from New Plymouth) as a "kinetic sculpture" which moves as the wind blows. For more info click here. It's kind of cool and almost theraputic.

Another thing which happened in New Plymouth, was Debo cracked one of her fillings....eating a crisp, would you believe it. We won't tell you the price, to get it fixed, becasue you won't believe that either.....but the dentist did a great job, all at the last minute too!!