North Westish New Zealand

Much to my relief, the towns on the west side of the northern island (particularly Wanganui and New Plymouth) turned out to have much more character than their eastern counterparts.  The size accounts for it, I think -- they're big enough that some sort of critical mass has been reached. Not that the cities are the place to be in New Zealand.  This is a country made for hiking boots and camping gear.

Baaa!

Stop #7 The water is acidic because it contains run-off from a volcanic lake.

Unfortunately there wasn't a route up to this cave that didn't involve climbing gear.  It's about four feet tall at the entrance , with a spring gushing out of it.

I like the New Zealand railroad crossing signs.  It looks like they were designed by Parker Brothers.

I ran into many of these interesting road transitions away from the main routes.  This is where a flat wide-open two lane highway with a 100kph speed limit becomes a narrow one-lane road through heavy undergrowth.  There are no signs, no warnings, nothing.  Keeps you on your toes...

A bit of the forest near Dawson Falls.

Dawson Falls.  It's difficult to see in the picture, but there are two people sitting at the top.

This is Mt Taranaki, a volcano on the west coast of New Zealand. The locals describe the climate this way:  "If you can see Mt Taranaki, it's about to rain.  If you can't see Mt Taranaki, it's already raining."  Needless to say it was raining when I took this.

I thought this building was visually interesting, although I'm sure if I had an office in there I wouldn't appreciate the big cement cross in front of my window.

These chairs had a beautiful finish on them, but were all gouged in exactly the same way.  It turns out they have very large bolts on the back, and the staff stacks the chairs every night at closing.

Found in Wanganui.  There's some hope for this relentlessly whitebread country after all...

Mt Taranaki did emerge (briefly) as I was leaving the area.

Stop #8, and the last on my itinerary.