FIRST TIKI TOUR OF THE YEAR

 Well... here we are.  About to hit the road and go about 3 hours south to New Plymouth.

We are both quite excited, it's an area we have not explored at all.

While it is the West Coast, so not my favourite side of the North Island, it is usually still very beautiful.

I love the wild seas you can get on the west coast.

Maybe we will be lucky and get to see some lovely rocky beaches?

ABOVE:  One of Bex's cute crochet creations.  

You get that to gaze upon cos I ain't got anything else to show ya right now!  😂😋😊

In case you didn't know, Bex crochets toys and the like, and sells them at markets.

She does very well too.

ABOVE:  And yes, another funny I saw on friggin Facebook.  

You can see and laugh at dozens of things every day on Facebook.  It's very entertaining.

And addictive.  Great way to keep in contact with friends and family, but such a time waster.

I probably wouldn't go on it much at all if it wasn't for my walking group.

It's our MAIN avenue to keep in touch, and keep up to date with EVENTS/WALKS as they are posted.

So yeah, I go on Facebook most days. 😕

Right, enough waffling!   I have to get up and get moving.

Catch ya later on.

12 noon.

We are safely in New Plymouth .

We have had a fantastic drive here. Right now we are about to have lunch in a restaurant overlooking the sea. 

ABOVE: It's gorgeous here. 

We got a real BONUS experience just outside New Plymouth... more later.

ABOVE:  some of the gorgeous rocky hills out in the boon docks!  

ABOVE:  as we approached New Plymouth, we noticed several planes doing stunts.  So we detoured to the airport and watched them for a while.

It was rather neat!  

ABOVE:  Yes Angela, we did lunch at SALT.  We both had our first ever Eggs Benedict!   And it was delicious.  And you couldn't ask for a nicer setting to have lunch.

ABOVE:  We followed lunch up with a short walk along the waterfront, then popped into an Art Gallery, before coming to our Hotel.

Settling in now.... might go have a swim in the pool before heading out to take a walk through Pukekura Park.

ABOVE:  We had a swim.  It is a salt water pool, so a bit different to what we are used to.  And it is a 'heated' pool, so was luke warm.  But still nice.

After our swim, we took off for Pukekura Park.

ABOVE:  What a gorgeous park!  And we found a little place selling Kapiti Ice Cream in the grounds.  

Why not?

Indeed.  Delicious.

After wandering around there for half an hour, we drove over to look at the famed Te Rewa Rewa Bridge.

ABOVE:  it is a very pretty footbridge, purpose built to showcase Mt Taranaki in the distance.

I want to come back here in winter to get the iconic photo with the mountain covered in snow.

ABOVE:  my darling.  

We have had a most wonderful day so far.

Just waiting to have dinner in the Hotel's Restaurant next.

Bet it's just lovely too.  This is a very nice hotel.

Whoops.  Forgot to end the day.  Will talk about dinner in the morning.