I'll start at the beginning! I left New Plymouth in the rain after driving around a bit looking at the main street and some of the interesting buildings. There's an art gallery/museum/library in NP that looked rather interesting so I had a quick tour around part of it! Loved the social history bit! Stuff from the 1950s that I can remember at home!!! Anyway rain didn't encourage me to get out of the car too much, so I had a quick look at the beach, took a couple of photos and took off to the town of Stratford where all the street names are names from Shakespeare's plays - Lysander, Ophelia, Miranda, Romeo.... they're all there! There's a King's Theatre too - like in Edinburgh. 
It's a town with a long main street with shops all along it,
and didn't I find THE best place for lunch! It was called Sugar Juice, I think and was just great! I missed hearing the glockenspiel play tunes from Shakespeare! ??????? 
It played at 1pm and I arrived there at 1.10!
It's a town with a long main street with shops all along it,
and didn't I find THE best place for lunch! It was called Sugar Juice, I think and was just great! I missed hearing the glockenspiel play tunes from Shakespeare! ??????? 
It played at 1pm and I arrived there at 1.10! Anyway this was where I turned off onto the Forgotten World Highway! At first the countryside was gentle and pastoral 
with ranges of small conical type of hills that looked like piles of sand covered over with grass and a few trees. Further on the road began to climb - I can't believe a road and a railway were built across these hills - twisting and turning up and round, down and round and up and round again, and it was obvious that the hills WERE indeed compacted sand and not all that hard either as there were several small landslips of sandy rock along the way, taking out at least one side of the two way road. Amazing! As the road twisted and turned there were great drops on the side away from the mountainsides. What slightly worried me was the way a lot of the road was shored up with wooden planks! I kept to the middle of the road I can tell you! 
with ranges of small conical type of hills that looked like piles of sand covered over with grass and a few trees. Further on the road began to climb - I can't believe a road and a railway were built across these hills - twisting and turning up and round, down and round and up and round again, and it was obvious that the hills WERE indeed compacted sand and not all that hard either as there were several small landslips of sandy rock along the way, taking out at least one side of the two way road. Amazing! As the road twisted and turned there were great drops on the side away from the mountainsides. What slightly worried me was the way a lot of the road was shored up with wooden planks! I kept to the middle of the road I can tell you! 
The native forest grew up on the hillsides and down into the valleys, which was just so beautiful with swathes of mist floating up from the valleys. You could almost imagine dinosaurs about to leap out of the trees ot the odd pterodactyl to fly across the tops of the trees and swoop down towards the road! Scar-ee!
At last I reached the Republic of Whangamomoana - yes, an independent republic! 
It is a small area of Taranaki, that declared itself independent when the local council decided to move the boundaries of their township into another administrative area. Great fun! It made headline news in 1987 when it happened! You can buy a passport at the pub
It is a small area of Taranaki, that declared itself independent when the local council decided to move the boundaries of their township into another administrative area. Great fun! It made headline news in 1987 when it happened! You can buy a passport at the pub 
and have it stamped with a visa if you return within 10 years! Independence day is celebrated every two years, and basically it has put the township on the map. Money is raised for the local community by the activities of Independence Day, and by the sale of passports, t-shirts, sun hats, etc! I stopped for a cup of Earl Grey at the pub and bought my passport!!! Then it was time I was getting a move on so after a few photos of the Republic's capital, I drove on.... and on... and on... I left the farming republic and carried on through more native forest of palms and grasses and other dense trees. Eventually the sand seemed to give way to shale or something like it! Same problem though and I didn't like the sign that announced DANGER! Do not linger or stop....... No way! Forgot to say that part of the road was just gravel and not tarred at all! Anyway, darkness was soon on its way and I did the last section of the road pretty much in darkness, still twisting around up and down to arrive at last at Taumarunui! I've booked into a motel tonight as there are no backpackers' hostels. Luxury! I even have my own kitchen, complete with pots and pans!!! However, I think this internet cafe - the Copper Kettle - will do me fine for supper! They have some nice looking goodies in the cabinets!I'll get to Rotorua tomorrow in time to have a look around, and will hopefully be able to book into the Kiwipacka hostel for a couple of nights!
I was going to add some pics but I'm about to run out of time. Maybe I'll get another ticket for half an hour and do that! Just noticed - there's a copy of a Jack Vetriano picture on the wall of this cafe! Someone has copied his pic! It's quite good! 
Anyway, all for now.
Talk again soon!
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