First Weekend!

Our first weekend was full of errands and appointments but we were still able to get out and see some sights in New Plymouth. Just at the edge of town is what is called Sugar Loaf Islands. Apparently they were named by Captain Cook after the resemblance of the sugar cubes he would put in his tea. Not sure how islands resemble sugar cubes, but whatever. The islands were beautiful, the scenery reminded us of Kauai. Lush and green, but the sand was black. All the beaches in New Plymouth have black sand, I think it has something to do with volcanoes (I'm terrible with remembering facts, this blog will not contain many facts)! Below are some pictures of the islands.

We rock climbed to the top of this. For real, the stairs ended halfway up! My muscles are still hurting.

The views were worth it once we got to the top! 

I was trying to be creative :) 

Looking towards the town. This side of town has a smoke stack and recycling yard. It's kind of an eyesore, we will stay away from this area when looking for a house. 

The next day we walked to the biggest Park in New Plymouth, called Pukekura Park. It is massive, and beautiful. We probably only walked through about one third of it. We are looking forward to our bikes arriving later this week so we can explore more. We stopped at the lake in the picture below and had a snack at the "Tea House on the Lake". In another area of the park they were setting up for a wedding. The park also has a zoo and cricket field. They also host outdoor events such as concerts and outdoor festivals. They have a huge weekend music festival in the park in 2 weeks which we are looking forward to. We've heard it's the event of the year ;)

Along the entire coast of the town there is a paved 10km "Coastal Walkway". We haven't walked the whole thing yet, but saw parts of it. It's a great way to get from one side of town to the other. Apparently it can be unsafe to bike on the bike lanes in the streets so Tyler will probably be using this path to ride to and from work. There is no beach near where we are staying, just big rocks, so we will need to bike or drive to the other side of town if we want to go in the water.

A new bridge that was built on the Coastal Walkway over the river.

Sunset on the Coastal Walkway across the street from our apartment. You can see the Sugar Loaf islands in the background.

The beach where you can swim. There were little sand cars going up and down one side of the beach being pulled by the wind sails. Have I mentioned it's windy here?

It seems every day this weekend there was some event happening. One day there was an American Car Show. There were 400 old and new American cars from all over New Zealand that came and drove down the main street. People lined the streets for blocks and there were American flags and car paraphernalia everywhere. The next day all the cars were parked for people to check out. For not really being a car person, I was quite impressed! Especially for how big it was considering how small the town's population is (apx. 70,000). Yesterday there was a farmers market set up on the street right outside the apartment. You could by a rooster for only $15! Tyler wouldn't let me get one. We are looking forward to what events might be happening next weekend. Monday is a holiday as it is the town's anniversary....I think!? Who knows what they will do to celebrate that.