Had a pretty comfortable (as these things go) 14 hour overnight direct flight from Vancouver to Auckland with Air New Zealand. Couple of hours to transfer for my connection down to New Plymouth.
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| Landing in New Plymouth with the snowy peak of Taranaki (the Shining Mountain) to greet me |
Great to catch up with the family (8 years since I saw my sister Beth).
And with Ben, been over year since I saw him!:
Maddy has been busy with horses (mostly) but seen plenty of Beth, Molly and Nick:
They'll be off on their travels soon and I will be here with Elvis the dog for a month. Not bad with the beach 10 minutes walk away:
and a nice deck out the back:
I've already had a quick jaunt into nearby New Plymouth:
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| Mural |
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| Len Lye centre with clock tower reflection |
On Sunday Nick took me out to check his trap line in the nearby Kaitakes. The Department of Conservation is running a massive programme to eradicate pests like possum, rats, weasels etc that have been introduced but have wreaked havoc on the indigenous flora and fauna. Volunteers like Nick monitor a number of traps each and empty and reset them as necessary. A big job to make New Zealand predator free by 2050.
From the Kaitakes back towards the coast and New Plymouth. Very spring like here. Chilly one minute and warm and sunny the next with some heavy rain showers. But I did get a fantastic window of weather to tramp on the mountain...
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