13,191 steps
9.10 kms
Car, unknown
Today was the day that I would be heading onto a
tour with a groups whee I would get to see the sights around Mount Taranaki
also known as Egmont where I get to see places like Dawson Falls. I had gotten
up early enough where I needed breakfast and had a quick wander looking for
some other stuff that was on the heritage trail. I was wondering if there would
be many people on the tour and if the bus would be able to find me especially with
my drama trying to find the address.
I was looking for a bus to turn up and a car rocked
up with a guy asking if I was ‘Bob’. I said no, I am Brad. The guide turned out
to b a Maori local to the area and a business owner who is also a trainer going
around giving people advice. He was very knowledgeable especially with the
tribal boundaries and local history. He talked about the Waka that arrived in
the area, which I found interesting. The thing about today was that the ttour I
was going on was actually only me so the driver wanted to know what interested
me and we could have gone to see a local pa that was a long walk or see Dawson
Falls. I did mention that I would like to visit the locations of the Taranaki
wars though could not off hand remember the actual locations. It was suggested
that we visit the Nigel Ogle’s Tawhiti museum near Hawera.
On our way to the museum we went to the monument to
Arthur Hamilton Ambury, which I didn’t know at the time was about. It was about
the heroism of Ambury in trying to save someone. That was not the only
remarkable building in the area as I found the barracks now North Egmont
Camphouse. The Barracks was once part of Marsland Hill fortification and from
there I was allowed to do the loop track to the main information centre where I
had a coffee with the tour guide The walk up the hill would take a very long
time something like 8 hours, but there were some parts of the mountain where
only experienced trekkers were meant to go on especially when there could be landslips.
From the mountain there would be a trip around the base past Stratford where we
would visit the museum.
We did stop in Stratford to see the Glockenspiel as
it was what we thought to be time for the Shakespeare show up there. Turns out
we were there at the wrong time. All the streets were named after the stories done
by Shakespeare. On our way out of town a statue of a person who fought at
Gallipoli was mentioned so we turned around as I had thought it was a hiker.
The person was called William George
Malone. The museum we found to be interesting as the founder, Nigel had dioramas
about the Tarinaki Wars including a Mr Chow who was the founder if dairying in
the area who started by collecting fungus. I had seen many parts of New Zealand
history before. I did not go through the Whalers part of the museum as it was
another $15 as that was the cost of the other museum. I actually had access to
the other part where the heavy farm vehicles were including the hedge trimmers.
I was interested to see there were some milk separators. By this time we went
to have lunch at Mr Badgers, which is Wind in the willows.
One of the places that interested me during the
museum rummage was a cemetery at Ohawe Military cemetery that is in the middle
of a field in the middle of nowhere really. It is dedicated the 45 imperil and
colonial service people who fell in the area during the Taranaki War in the
1860s It was pretty tough at first trying to find a place to cross a small moat
though I did find a crossing, but we both did discuss if the area was a redoubt
too. I found because the cemetery had no water the Maori guide did not enter
the grounds, which is understandable. He had never been to the grounds before
and was happy to have found them too. Nearby there was another monument to a fishing
boat that was lost in 1974. The cliffs were made when the mountain shoved lava
and all that over to that side of the country.
The next destination took us through very windy
mountain roads on our way to Dawsons Falls, which after a short hike was
spectacular though the steps were steep and proved even after this trip I was
no totally fit enough for these types of walks especially to one who is Hobbit
like. There was even snow still on the mountain, but was good to get to see
another side of a mountain. On our way back we passed other redoubts and Pa
sites that were not really public knowledge like a Pa that was the last
location of a cannibal feast. One place we did stop at was at the historic
reserve Fort St. George that was a redoubt that is long gone, but also has a
memorial to several maori who had been killed known as the Katikara Memorial.
Next to it was a Pa site, but I was interested in visiting location that I had
only touched n through the Department of Conservation website about forts.
By this time the day was ending for the drive and we
had passed the turn off for Paihaka where the people still live, but its not
quite a tourist destination. They had to sort out the tourism type stuff as
things were not always as it seemed and people were not really visiting Taranaki
area after the GFC as it had hit them hard. There was many bits with the
Fonterra milk factories that I had seen. I was shown some other areas in New
Plymouth including the first oil well that had been made that is now a
monument. I was told about another gate
that had been used in the past that were shut at night to keep out the
undesirables. Once I was dropped off with plenty of information and told that
the trip tomorrow up the Forgotten Highway will be tailor made towards myself
as well since the driver did not have a huge idea what I would be interested in
and we will both think of what might attract out attentions. It is pretty good
to have a tour that is really random in itself especially when the guide
himself doesn’t know what will happen as everything is just random.
I really did enjoy my day out and I asked about the
tower that is near the port and it was to do with a power station that no longer
exists that had something to do with asbestos. The ports area was just as interesting in itself
and once I got dropped off I did take a short tour of the streets that I had
not looked at myself. I have found this area to be very interesting so far and
luckily I have longer here with a free day to do whatever I like.
No comments:
Post a Comment