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.................!

1, 2 & 3Jan08 Stratford

After spending New Years Eve up on Mt Taranaki in the carpark of the Mountain Lodge we decided that we would spend the next two nights in Stratford.We found a small motor camp right in the heart of Stratford that alongside a park through which ran a small river. The river was mentioned as fishable (trout) and evidence of this could be seen by the pieces of fishing line caught up in the trees overhanging the river.The park offered a wide variety of areas from dense supplejack.......to open spaces.From many parts of the park Mt Taranaki could be seen.Stratford itself is well known for its Glockenspiel, see the tower in the far ground.Many people gathered at the published times to watch the action and hear the play.On the 3rd it was time to leave Stratford and the ever present Mt Taranaki and start the journey north along the Forgotton Highway.

01Jan08 Mt Taranaki

This post for New Years Day 2008 is devoted to some pics of Mt Taranaki. When we woke in the morning, looked through our front windscreen reflected in our friend's rear window was us and Mt Taranaki.Stepping outside we were greeted with clear skies and a great view of Mt Taranaki.Well we were already 800m up Mt Taranaki why not continue up to the carpark at 1500m. It just got better the closer we got.The view from the carpark was expansive with Ruapehu (Tongariro National Park) to the east, Pirongia to the north and the Southern Alps to the south.Today we were heading down to Stratford where we were going to spend two nights to catch up.