Today I bring to you; Taranaki. A mad cool region in the North Island of New Zealand that has just been ranked #2 in Lonely Planet's top 10 regions to visit in 2017! And rightly so! For a limited time you can actually view me on Lonely Planet's global Snapchat story "5 Places You Never Knew You Wanted to Visit." #mummawemadeit. Pity no one actually knows it's me. lel. (I'm the one with the long hair and the face.) So a huge congrats to The Naki. #hardcore!
Believe it or not, but during my 27 years on this planet, living in this beautiful country of ours, I had never visited this beautiful place. Until last week. I really can’t think of any good reasons why I hadn’t before. I came away a bit like, “whhaaatttt have I been DOING all this TIME!?” WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME ABOUT THIS PLACE BEFORE. MUM!? THE HELL!? Waaahhhhyyyy? I’m upset I didn’t get to experience this region in all its nature glory sooner. Why is it heaps cool I hear you ask? Do you like surfing? Yas. Do you like mountains? Yas. Do you like great walks? Yas. Do you like snowboarding? Yaaaassss. Do you like waterfalls? YAS. Do you like stunning sunsets? YAAASSS!! It’s pretty much the best natural adventure playground ever in the history of natural adventure playgrounds.
My frothy froth king mate Logan Dodds and I were lucky enough to be able to explore Taranaki and all it’s epicness for two days last week (not enough time p.s). We were easily able to bust out a section of Pouakai Walkway, Dawson Falls and a bomb ass sunset on the Tongaporutu Coast all in one day. Check it:
Day two we indulged in a hearty dose of NZ art culture at the Len Lye Centre. I’ve got to admit, I actually didn’t know who Len Lye was before I visited The Naki. Now I suddenly have quite the obsession going on. I would actually travel back to New Plymouth just for this exhibition. Which speaks volumes for me because I’m usually all about nature and the outdoors. This place is definitely worth a visit even if you aren’t usually into this type of art. Read about his life and work here: http://www.govettbrewster.com/len-lye/centre. Entry is completely free. And not to mention even just the outside of the gallery is epically cool.
To top off our trip we met up with our mate Talman to road trip along the Surf Highway. Mount Taranaki is visible from every angle around the peninsula, so there are photo ops around every corner. This whole coast line gets heavily stacked with some of the best surf in New Zealand. There is got to be something seriously magic about surfing with a giant volcano as your view.
Cheers Taranaki & 100% Pure New Zealand for hosting us. Can't wait to head back already!
