16/01/08
Hello from the west coat of the North Island! Today I really did a day off. I took a bus from Wanganui up to New Plymouth. The ride was about 162km, which meant biking there and back would have taken at least 4 days, time which I simply can’t spare if I hope to be on the South Island by February. However, I did want to come up this way and take the time to check out Mount Egmont / Mount Taranaki. Yes, the second-highest peak on the North Island has two names. One is the Maori name, and the other is left over from when NZ was colonized. Nowadays, most people are referring to it as Taranaki, which I think is the better name anyway. Of course, there is more to this region than just the massive volcano which acts as a stand-in to Mount Fuji in the movie ‘The Last Samurai’. If you want to learn a little more, just read on, and don’t forget to check out my ever-so-useful map that I put together.