Up in the Snow

New Plymouth has a brand new NZMCA Park at Bell Block, opened in July 2018.  Transformed from a gorse covered piece of land, to a site with all weather parking, water, rubbish facilities and a dump station.  Trees have been planted around the outside of the section, and something we hadn't seen before, site boundaries are marked for vans.  There is an area in the middle of the camp to accommodate large buses. A new wooden shed houses the sign-in book, local info, shelves of swap-a-book, and for those who really must keep the laundry up to date while on holiday, a sturdy clothesline in a nice sunny area.   It is all very well done, and a credit to all those involved.

New NZMCA Park, New Plymouth

Hearing about a recent fall of snow on Mt Egmont, we took a drive to to the North Egmont Visitors Centre.  The road took us through 6 km of dense rainforest, past rimu and rata trees, ferns and mosses, a very pretty drive indeed up a fairly narrow, winding road. 

Driving up the mountain

Snow started appearing on the edges of the road, getting thicker the closer we got to our destination, and some cars on the way down had packed snow onto the bonnets.  The car park was full – being a Sunday it seemed everyone was out and about.  Children were having fun playing in the snow, throwing the occasional snowball, and slipping and sliding about.

View of Mt Egmont from the car park

We walked carefully up the snow covered walkway to the Look Out, which gave us a rather hazy view over New Plymouth.  And look – someone’s had fun making a snow man family.

It’s more years ago than we can remember when we were last slipping and sliding about in snow.  Lovely to see up close, and great to see so many people out and about enjoying themselves.  For some children, it would be their very first time in snow, so that is rather special for the families.

The Visitors Centre also housed a café, so we carefully negotiated the snow covered steps and deck.  Don’t want to slip and fall and do ourselves a mischief, do we?  A hot drink was in order, which we enjoyed looking out at the view through the large picture windows. 

North Egmont Visitors Centre

We noticed a sign in the Visitors Centre prohibiting dogs – “not even in your car” it stated, and with a huge fine of $100,000 to those who flout the law.

No dogs allowed

We had a lovely time enjoying the snow on the lower part of the mountain.  In his younger days, Robin has climbed right to the top of Mt Egmont, and has a certificate to prove it, he tells me.