Another day: another island: another coastline! Having bid farewell to Joan and John at the airport, we flew off to Palmerston North, whilst they whiled away the day in Christchurch before their late afternoon flight back home to Melbourne.

Our flight was good and short - just about an hour. We flew over the Marlborough Sounds which we visited last time and it was fascinating to see the fingers of land reaching into the ocean. We could just make out Farewell Spit, which is the most northerly point in South Island. Then as we crossed the Cook Straits to North Island immediately we could see Mount Taranaki - very conical and sticking up above the cloud!

Mount Taranaki is the reason for our current venue. We are staying in Hawera for two nights in order to explore this sticky out bit on the west coast of North Island! We had been intrigued by pictures of this area and although it's a bit off the beaten track we were determined to see it this time.

Mount Taranaki

Having landed we were very quickly picking up our luggage, followed by a new hire car - this time a red Corolla and much more in line with our inclinations! We journeyed up the west coast stopping in Wanganui to pick up provisions and have lunch. It was another beautiful day - more or less cloudless and low 20s temperatures again.

We reached Hawera at 3.45 and having checked in and had a cup of tea we decided to venture further up the coast to Opunake. Here we had a walk on a surf beach and came across at least 70 white-fronted terns! We also had a walk on the cliff top round to the next bay and had some good views of Mount Taranaki. It kept disappearing into cloud but then it would clear a little to give tantalising views of the peak.

Cliffs at Opunake

White-fronted terns

On the way back we stopped several times to get more photos of the mountain but also to photograph the ubiquitous agapanthus. This is a large headed flower in white but mostly blue that some of you will be well acquainted with but seems to grow almost like a weed here! However it looks great and is definitely the flower of the holiday just as broom and lupins were the flowers in British Columbia last year!

Roadside agapanthus

Again we have good accommodation and can just see the top of Mount Taranaki from our room!