South Island - Our Intrepid Journey Days 8

South Island - Our Intrepid Journey Day 8

26 October 2009

Day 8.  We left New Plymouth heading to Stratford where we planned to stay the night at a motorcamp that we had stayed at Christmas 2007/08.  Two stops were planned, Hollard Gardens and Dawson Falls.  The day started out fine however rain was forecast.

From the Dawson Falls carpark.

We headed off through the Goblin Forest.

 

Crossed a river strewn with boulders, more than once.

Viewed Wilkes Pools carved out in solid rock by the water.

 

Finally after a couple of hours we ended up at Dawson Falls. The path did go to the bottom of the falls, so did I, 98 steps to be exact.  Whilst the water flow was quite low the falls were quite impressive close up from the bottom.

Hollard Gardens

 These gardens are well worth visiting not far from Kaponga.  The few pics I have included simply do not do justice.

The entrance from the carpark, where one could park over for the night, gave nothing away.

 I really don't have the blog space to go into a lot of detail.  I am trying to keep the limit to about four pics for each specific location.  Unfortunately these gardens deserve better than what I have given them.

The gardens were extensive through wetlands, exposed and usual protected areas.

Flowers everywhere.  Rhododendrons, Azaleas,Camelias and zillions of others.  Check out my hayfever for confirmation.  The colours where across the spectrum with scents that some times overwhelmed.

 As with all the parks we have had the pleasure of visiting in Taranaki the attention to detail and layout is fantastic Auckland is so far behind in every way when it comes to engaging free public areas for all generations.

Got to go dishes to be done.................!