Mount Taranaki

After I decided to go to New Zealand, I was looking at guidebooks to find interesting places to visit. I saw a picture of this lake with the mountain in the background and instantly put this location on my "must see" list.
Lake Mangamahoe, with Mt. Taranaki in the background
Duck on the lake
The glockenspiel in Stratford. A couple times a day it opens up and plays a scene from Romeo and Juliet.

Stratford is an interesting little town. All of the streets have Shakespearean names. I actually hadn't planned to spend the night in this town - my goal was to drive all the way to New Plymouth and use that as my base for Mount Taranaki. I'm glad that I started to get too tired to drive any further, since this town is close to all of the trailheads at Egmont National Park (Mount Taranaki).

I spent 2 nights here with the friendliest people in New Zealand. David and Edna were extremely gracious hosts at their bed and breakfast, The Pretty Croft, and you couldn't beat the rate or $45NZ/night for a single (and I got the nice room).

Even though my first day was really cold and rainy, I got a few short walks in between downpours. This is Dawson Falls.
You pass through this section of "goblin forest" while hiking the Wilkies Pools Loop Track at the Dawson Falls entrance of Egmont National Park.
More "goblin forest" can be seen on the Kamahi Loop Track at the East Egmont entrance.
The low alpine plants along the Enchanted Track at East Egmont.
The rocky upper peaks of Mt. Taranaki. There were still small patches of snow on the peak in early fall (late March).



The obligatory picture of New Zealand sheep
The windblown southwestern coast, by Hawera

The black sand beaches of the west coast
Sign indicating that I had the right-of-way at the one lane section of road.
I decided not to argue with this truck, and let them have the right-of-way
Bridal Veil Falls near Raglan, in the Waikato district.
On the coast heading back to Auckland. The Coromandel range is in the background, and if you look at the black dots in the water, you can see a New Zealand green-lipped mussel farm.