March 07, 2014
After Pukekura Park, we headed to the coast to check out the Surf Highway and the beach town of Oakura. While New Zealand’s surfers aren’t as renowned as some of the Australians who’ve made a name for themselves, there is a strong surf culture here and some famous surf breaks. These areas are mostly located along a string of small towns that dot the west coast of the North Island.
We’d earlier told James (our helpful waiter) our plans to visit one particular town, but he urged us to skip that and instead head for Oakura, where the real surf action happens. We decided to take his advice and arrived to find a big bay with long lines of gentle waves and a dark-sand beach. It was really lovely and definitely had the feel of a west coast surf town: remote, easy going, a bit funky, beach bachs (little NZ holiday homes), dark sand (prevalent on this coast), and of course, waves. Today the surf was small; so not many surfers were about, but we could still get the vibe of this place. Below a few photos; click on any photo to enlarge.
One thing I’ve noticed when visiting surf beaches in this country is there seems to be an abundance of room for the number of surfers about. Of course, I haven’t been to these places when the surf is really up, but it’s hard to imagine surfers pile up like they tend to in places like Southern California and Hawaii. I think New Zealand might quietly be a surfers’ paradise (I can just hear a thousand surfers whispering, “shhhh; don’t tell anyone!”)
After checking out the beach, we headed to the Carriage Cafe, a cute eatery located in a train dining car with an adjoining gallery gift shop, for a brownie and coffees.
Our next destination was Pukeiti Garden, one of Taranaki’s botanical gardens and “an international garden of significance.” It’s somewhat elevated but still closer to the base of Mount Taranaki than its higher latitudes. This meant driving through native bush and grassy field scenery rather than the rainforests at the higher elevations. It was neat going through areas of what I call “humpity bumpities,” those strange mini bunched up hills, and looking up at the peak of Mount Taranaki which had a dusting of snow that was rapidly depleting on this sunny day.
We arrived at Pukeiti Garden and got out to walk around. Frankly, we were a bit disappointed. The path was hot and not well shaded, and the surroundings seemed a bit tired, slightly overgrown, and not very well marked. We found a pretty fern forest walk, but compared to other places we’d been, Pukeiti overall was a letdown. When Rich wanted to cut the walk short, I agreed.
Note: Taking a moment just now to read about Pukeiti Garden, I see its big claim to fame is its rhododendrons. These plants bloom in the spring, and we were there late in the summer; so we missed what was most special about this place. I’m thinking now we judged it unfairly.
Below, a few photos from the Pukeiti Garden.
I was now anxious to get to Egmont National Park, which I expected would be impressive (and it was, blog post coming). –Cyndi
