City Living: Time in New Plymouth

We've spent a good amount of time in this city. Partly due to Sir Huntington's medical visits and operation, partly due to the fact that it is our base for our hikes up Taranaki.

We leave today for the 'around the mountain' low level circuit. We are not going to complete the whole circuit, as the track from Holly Hut to North Egmont Visitor's centre was not the most ideal track for us. We experienced it once, and now that the snow has been going up and down in level again, it's best to avoid that area. Instead we will travel in the opposite direction, towards the Maketawa Hut and hopefully hike all around to the Kahui hut, and return, skipping the Maketawa Hut in the end for one long day before our return to New Plymouth. We'll see. Brent would like to keep this trip a little bit shorter (in terms of nights).

We found out yesterday that part of the Wanganui track we were thinking of travelling has been wiped out due to a giant slip. They are doing emergency repairs as we speak, however it might put Wanganui National Park out of our trip until further notice. There are a great deal of forest parks coming up as well as Tongariro National Park. We may base out of National Park (it's actually the name of a town here) and do the 'around the Mountain' for Mt. Ruapehu in Tongariro NP and then head south through some forest parks. We'll keep you posted.

None the less, we've spent our time in New Plymouth living in the city. The city is a great base for backpackers. You are so close to the national park, but the city also offers a great central location for many coastal tracks both north and south of the city, as well as a wide range of hikes through the city. We've spent every day outside of the park wandering around different trails.


Notes from our time in the city.

IRD. We finally got our IRD numbers. And by this, I actually mean that within 15mins of arriving at the office, the Internal Revenue Department hooked us up. And it's all because of the wonderful Emma-Jane. She was the receptionist who was helping us out with some questions about our forms. The reason we require IRDs (comparible to SIN numbers back home) is to both work AND allow us to put money into our savings account and receive a better tax break. They tax SUPER HIGH on bank accounts. Everything is high. Interest is near 7% (yay!!), mortgage rates are currently hovering around the 9% mark, tax is 12 or 12.5% which is comparible to Canada - HOWEVER, their GST is included in their prices. No surprise tax hit at the teller no matter where you go in this country. So wonderful! Anyway - so we showed up to speak to the IRD about having our cards mailed back home (as we will never have a fixed address here). E-J wanted to help us figure out how to get our numbers to us sooner, as shipping them to Canada would mean that we would not see our numbers for at least a month or more. So she went to the back and spoke to the mystery people we never met, and came back to tell us that it would only be a moment. A moment to process our application and provide us with a paper that is officially stamped with our IRD numbers on it. Which means that we were set and ready to go!! Amazing. So wonderful. Thank you Emma-Jane and crew!!!

Speaking of money. Something about NZ currency. They have coins: 10c, 20c, 50c, 1$, 2$. They have bills: 5$, 10$, 20$, 50$, 100$. The bills physically get bigger as the value goes up. The coins don't follow the same pattern. So yeah - 10c is their smallest currency. Which means that there is thing called rounding that happens in NZ. You still go to the supermarket and see prices at 3.84 or 19.87. If you pay EFTPOS (debit) the exact amount is taken from your account to the penny. If you pay cash - they round up or down the cost. If your total is $19.87 - you actually pay $20.00. At that store you lose out on 3c. They figure that eventually it will all even itself out. Ugh. So we try to keep the numbers under 5c, so we can gain more than we lose. It's actually quite hard to achieve.

We went to the bank and transfered a big chunk of our money into our savings account so that we could benefit from our financial contribution to our NZ bank and possibly make enough interest to break even from SH III's medical bills. :) Here's hoping!

In the cities, we're always in grocery stores. Searching out for the sales. The main stores, Woolworth, Countdown and Foodtown - and quite possibly New World as well, are all overseen by the same upper company. There is also a Pak & Save - which is part bulk, part no frills, and that's the one I described as shopping in WalMart. We know where things cost less in each of these stores. We are always picking up food for the trails - so we find ourselves always in these stores shopping. Living on a budget, looking for the best sales. Always. Amusing.

Sarah, one of the hostesses at the Seaspray, made lemon loaf a few days ago and invited us to have a piece. It was delicious. The seaspray house will be known to me as the place where the hostesses offer us cake. :)

Brent and I went to the movies this week. We were always planning on seeing the Batman movie on a big screen, so decided to finally check it out in NP. And the reason we chose NP is because of their AMAZING movie food combos. Take note Canada - I expect this when we return!! Not only is the cost of seeing a movie in New Plymouth more less than half the price as seeing it in Auckland (remember - $23/person). It was only 10$ each in NZ dollars (cheaper then home) - then we splurged on a combo number 1, for $13.50. Just to say that we did it. You get two small pops (you can upgrade to a medium for like 50c or something, I don't remember), one large popcorn, and TWO chocotops. Mmmmmm. What is a chocotop - a two scoop ice cream cone, in a waffle cone, dipped in chocolate. They just pull them out of the freezer, already in a small plastic bag. So yummy. Like the best movie combo ever. And the movie was good too!

I don't remember if I posted about this before - but there is one thing that blows my mind in this country. They do NOT recycle. They say they do, but I have yet to see it. They have signs everywhere asking you to please recycle - but no blue bins. Only trash bins. In NP, you are only allowed to put out one trash bag a week for garbage, anything above and you are charged for it. However, you can put out recycling bags and they will take them free of charge. When asked about this system, someone confided in us that the 'recycle bags' are picked up in the same truck as the garbage, but they are never separated at the plant. They just throw them all together. Maybe they are getting ready for when a plant opens up? It's terrible to come from an uber recycle/green bin city like Toronto to this. Especially in Auckland, I was blown away. I would expect a first world nation like NZ to be on the ball with this. Hopefully in time.

Driving. We went back out to Hwy 43 (take 2). We travelled north of the city to walk along the beach near whitecliffs walkway, but we missed low tide, which meant that it was no longer possible to access the beach. We'll you could, but the water would have swept you away. So instead of driving back to the city the easy way, we took some gravel road shortcuts to revisit the town of Whangamomona (bustling population of 10 (TEN), greater Whangamomona area - pop approx 200) on the hilly and windy forgotten world hwy 43. Why? To get our passports stamped. Whangamomona is the capitol of the republic of Whanga, a place which is generally led by a president of the animal world - a goat and a poodle have each taken their place in the presidental chair. In 1989, this area decided to call itself a Republic. They are officially independent of NZ - and will celebrate 20 years on January 24th, 2009. Go figure.

And now our passports are stamped.

We missed the mountainous area of Hwy 43 cause I took a shortcut that I didn't know. Oh well. We wanted to nab some pictures - but it will probably be a similar drive through the fiords. So we'll just wait.

We visited the three sisters yesterday. Well, there are only 2 now, I think one crumbled to the ground and passed away. They are 25m high pinnacles out on a beach 1 hour outside of New Plymouth. You can only visit this beach at low tide as well. Restricted access much? You have about 4 good hours - 2 prior to low tide, and 2 directly after low tide. We can't read tide charts - we tried the night before. So we just guessed it to be approx 7.50am. We could access the beach, so we were doing okay. But the tide was starting to rise again for sure.

We completed several coastal walks. They have a 7km stretch that runs along the Tasman Sea, similar to the walkway in Vancouver. It's a beautiful walk. The waves can be quite high and splash up onto the walkway and the piers. Intense. Surfing is a favorite out here. We, the non learned surfers, area waiting for time on the East Coast. The west coast has a stronger current - and it's best to leave it to the hard cores. :)

We even went to the zoo here in NP. It took about 20mins to walk around. Strolling. :(

Walked down to back beach to find seals two nights ago. Did not see a single one. Again, a beach that can only be accessed at certain tides. The sand out on the west coast (here and in Raglan for sure, and along the surf highway) is black, due to a high iron content. We were walking around giant black sand dunes, one of which was washed away by the currents. Could make a comeback someday.

Climbed Paritutu rock yesterday. A giant cliff in the city limits. We don't know who maintains this climb, but it's well chained. It's a very steep climb up a rocky cliff. It's a quick climb - maybe 15mins one way - offering great views of the ocean and city. On a clear day, you would be able to see Taranaki. We might climb it again on our last day here to see if we can see Taranaki.

Went to a fruit and veggie stand on the way back from the 3 sisters yesterday and were very disappointed. We were spoiled in Otorohanga with the cost at the fruit & veggie stand out there. A lot of produce for 4.56. Yummy!! The prices at this stand were higher then in grocery stores. Unfortunate.

In Ontario, you drive down a highway and there are signs that tell you how far you are from certain cities. You don't really get that in NZ. At least not on the highways we have been driving. You sometimes only know what the next city is, and usually you only find that out at a road junction. At a major junction, you will see a sign that will point out the direction of a city and maybe offer how many kms away it is. Maybe. You might also only get the name of the major city and the hwy. It's interesting to drive here not always knowing how far away you are. Our speedometer is working now, so we can rely on our odometer to tell us - so for now, we're doing okay. Before, we never knew how far we were from a city/town. On the other hand - everything here has a name. Every street you cross is named, every bridge you drive over (usually one lane bridges) are named, all the streams and rivers have posted names - which helps with direction/navigation. That's something you don't necessarily find back home.

We have enjoyed the free musuem and galleries here. I love cities that offer free entry to everyone to their exhibitions. This allows for all classes of people to enjoy exhibits and enrich their families with culture. Costs sometimes keeps families away.

We have spent late evenings building WASGIJs at the hostels. Jigsaw puzzles that show one picture on the actual box, and the puzzle itself could be from the future or what is on the opposite view of the box. Ex - if we are looking at four people standing in front of us shocked as they look at something, the puzzle is then the picture of what those four people are looking at. There are also mystery puzzles that show a heist or something on the box, and the puzzle itself is the solution. They are challenging yet addictive.

Menace on the mountain. There is a carpark that has been targetted for monstrous vehicle vandalism on Mt. Taranaki. It's called the Plateau. We will not be parking at this carpark, but are none the less a little nervous about our car spending the next several nights alone in a carpark near the visitor centre. There was an article on the front page of the newspaper yesterday about the vandalism. Cars bascially beat up with bats. Windows shattered beyond use (which is WAY too much money to replace!!!). It's scary. I actually only thought we would have to worry about theft - so we keep nothing in the car. But it sounds much worse here. We'll talk to the DOC today about that as well.

Stupid bored teenagers or adults. Who does that??

And today we head out. Life in the city is over, and it's time to head back into the wilderness for a long stretch of time. Sorted out our food (+1 day and evening in case of emergency) for the next hiking trip. We'll be back to NP for one night before driving down the surf highway to Wanganui, and possibly up to National Park to base ourselves for a few more hiking trips.


Pray for our poor little car left alone in the visitor centre car park. I don't think we can afford any sort of senseless vandalism like that on our car.