10/1/2019 0 Comments New PlymouthI was gonna get all fancy and do a slide show, but then I stuck with a single image because you don't need all that distraction. So New Plymouth is somewhere I hadn't been for years and years til recently, and now I've been heaps in the last while. I went when I was about 20-months to visit my cousins, obviously I wasn't on my own, I presume my parents went too. It wasn't toddler Moira hitching from the Eastern Bay of Plenty (though I was quite feisty and that may have been something I would have considered). Then I went at about 20 when I was at University to stay at my Nana's house. She moved there from Auckland in her late 70s. She was quite feisty too. Then i took the kids as part of our "places they'd never been". Unfortunately the first place I took them was Wellington, and they wanted to repeat that experience. I kinda ruined small towns by introducing them to the coolness of Wellington too early. Then i met Guitarman who grew up there so we have been 3 times in the last 2 years. Which is cool as. Is that too much introduction to my review? - it gets longer so bear with me. His Mum and Dad live there. So he gets to be a 15-year old again, and I get to enjoy being in a house with a Mum. My Mum died when I was in my late teens, so it's nice to have clean sheets and a meal cooked. (Cancer if you're wondering). i did have a mum-in-law and a Step-mum-in-law from my marriage, but that's a whole other story. If you want to know it ask me, but you have to buy me a drink. My cousins live there and they're cool as, so I get to hang with them too. This is the end of the into bit. Anyway my review of New Plymouth starts here. I like it a lot. It has really good street art and cafes. It has wild west coast beaches. It has the wind wand which is wavy as, and doesn't have dickheads breaking it. It has the Festival of Lights which is really really cool. The Tauranga festival of Lights sucks balls. this one is seriously so good. I made a new friend with a lady from Colarado who gave me a heart that said "you are a gift to the Universe". Or as the 15 year olds said "Gag Gift". It has the Len Lye centre which is an amazing mirrored building. It is worth a look inside, but probably only once because they make visitors pay now. Fun Fact: Len Lye wasn't even from New Plymouth. Everyone takes a photo of it and of the mountain. That makes it a bit boring. It has restaurants at the Breakwater which were yum,. We went for a walk along the breakwater bit, though I did Parkour kicks off the concrete and then my inner thighs ached for 2 days afterwards It has really great rivers to swim in and do bombs, which actually aren't even polluted like Kaiete Falls, and don't even get me started on that because it really pisses me off. I swung off the rope which counted as a Bomb, and you only have to do one to say you've done a Bomb despite advise to the contrary from the kids. We got sunburned but - wear sunscreen. They're real close to town too. - the swimming holes are. Like super close. The very best thing about New Plymouth is FEEDING THE EELS which I wrote in Caps so you can see how good it is. OMG it seriously is the best. You have to go right in town at Huatoki Plaza Stream. We go to Pak'n'Save and buy chicken hearts and they love them. Though one touched my hand and freaked me out and made me scream. I had to put the photo of the eels at the bottom because I can't manage to use the image thing, though I did 5 minutes ago when I wrote about Festival of Lights. WTF. We bought 2 packs of chicken hearts last time and the eels were stuffed, they were like I couldn't possibly have another, but then they did anyway. We shared the hearts with some little kids who loved it. Fun Fact - long finned eels are protected and they breed once. They swim all the way to Tonga and then the babies swim back. They live to 120 and breed once. They are really gentle when they touch you so there's no need to be scared. (I'm being real brave as I write that). The bad thing about New Plymouth is that it's a long way away in the car - it takes ages to drive there like 4 1/2 hours and then there's an argument because I missed the turn offs because i haven't driven it one million fucking times. It also pisses me off that you have to go North to Cambridge from Tauranga to get there from here and you can't drive directly across country. Though the time I went with the kids I went via Rotorua. Evidently that was wrong but we still got there. Edit: Guitarman said we weren't even going North and he wanted to check on a map. I did check and he's right. God that pisses me off.... but makes me happy in the long term. I will be less pissy about going to Cambridge. You should google map it at your leisure. Oh another cool thing is you have to go through the cutest tunnels on the way there. That's cool as. There's only two so make the most of them. and the scenery is beautiful but the road is windy and a bit scary. Guitarman said the dumb things are farmers and racism. There is some seriously racist shit in the little cottage by Puke Ariki the museum. I was shocked. Far out if you want to see some terrible attitudes towards Māori, go there and read the stuff from the settlers. Also Parihaka is there which is my cousins' Marae, and that is some terrible terrible shit, and if you don't know about it you should. Go and read the link and this article too. Anyway New Plymouth is a cool as place to visit. Go there. But read up on Parihaka.
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