Day 13 February 14th Around New Plymouth

When I stepped outside our hotel door this morning I thought I had gone to Savill's heaven.  There was a sparkling new Harley Davidson, a Triumph Bonneville and several other superbikes.  They were out for an early morning spin.  Again it was ideal weather and the New Zealand roads seem to have been built for biking - good surfaces, good weather, not much traffic and sometimes nice bendy stretches.  We have seen lots of bikes on our travels.

We decided to walk along the seafront of this very pleasant city and were surprised to see quite a few cyclists and walkers making the most of the wonderful weather,  The man in the picture with his family told Christine that this is the best summer of the twelve years he had live in New Plymouth.  We walked so far and then had a drinks break at a cafe.  We returned via the town main street to our hotel and car.  We then went up Mount Egmont as far as could by car.  The summit was covered in cloud as we approached but this cleared for a brief period which certainly benefitted us.  As we drove back to the hotel we stopped at a waterfall called Dawson's Falls but it was not as dramatic as the Bridal Veil Falls we saw yesterday.   We arrived back at the hotel, sorted ourselves out and went for a nice St. Valentine's day meal at a seafront restaurant.