New Plymouth to Hawera

The POP we stayed at in New Plymouth was lovely, with views over farmland beside us.  Mind you, there are houses quite close in the other direction, but we can imagine that we are in the deepest darkest countryside, can’t we.

Camping with country views

Mt Egmont decided to show herself in all her glory the next morning.  Just as well I was up early enough to snap this photo, and she gathered the clouds tightly around herself not long after, and kept them there for most of the day.

Mt Egmont

We spent most of the afternoon driving here and there, doing a few jobs, and stopping off to purchase a few extra groceries.  Robin did most of his schooling in New Plymouth, so we had to check out his childhood home, and drove past his primary and secondary schools.  He commented that he used to bike up and down all the steep hills as a boy, and it was no trouble for strong young legs.

 

Later in the afternoon we had an appointment with a Birman breeder, who bred the Champion sire Lord Apollo of our beloved cat Muffy.  Muffy has been gone some time now and we are in the market for a new kitten and want to get one from this blood line, if possible.  Here’s hoping a kitten (female, seal point) comes available soon.  The breeding cats were all outside in their cages enjoying the late afternoon sunshine, but difficult to get good photos through the mesh.

Birmans at the cattery

The four of us went out for a Chinese meal at Sunworld Restaurant, and invited Robin’s old school mate Gary and his wife Glenys to join us.  It was a lovely night catching up and reminiscing.

Jenny and Robin, with Gary and Glenys

It was time to move on again, heading down to Hawera with a couple of stops along the way.  Stratford was named after the birthplace of William Shakespeare and many of the streets bear the name of the characters from his plays.  Stratford's glockenspiel stands in the main street, Broadway, and is unique to New Zealand.   Romeo and Juliet, emerge for the balcony scene, reaffirming their vows of love, four times a day.   The life-size figures were created by Nigel Ogel, owner/curator of Tawhiti Museum, near Hawera.  Well worth the time to stop and listen, if you are there at the right time.

Glockenspiel at Stratford

Our next stop was to “The Cheesebar” at Eltham  to buy some cheese and hopefully pick up a bargain or two.  There was some delicious Kikorangi Blue on special, so I made sure I got some of that, plus a few other cheeses.

I can’t say no to a good cheese

Not too much further and we pulled into the NZMCA site at Hawera.  Plenty of room for us at lunch time, although travelers often arrive in the early evening.  Not us – if possible we like to get settled on site by mid afternoon at the latest.

NZMCA site at Hawera

Only one night here for us – on Thursday we are traveling to Wanganui to meet up with our Caravan Club for a  long weekend rally.  It will be great to catch up with the other members again, as we missed the previous rally.