We had just finished a great Christmas with our family, and it was time to head off to a long-awaited trip to Taranaki. Last year, I had done several trips to New Plymouth to meet up with old work colleagues from my days at the Herald and for a Hospice Auction. But it was all very quick and like a sprint from Auckland and back. This time, we could have bit of a nosey round.

We left Auckland early, but it still took over an hour to get through the Takanini/Papakura area on the Motorway. The traffic was diabolical, and this was on the 27^th.

After getting through there, it was easy peasy all the way to Otorohanga where we were meeting up with friends from the Dethleffs Owners Group, Steve and Rosemary. They had come down the day before and were very ready with a park right next to them at the NZMCA park which made things really easy. Here is an interesting link about their railway station 🙂

We had a great night with them… It was really nice to catch up with them again.

In the morning we headed into Otorohanga town and had lunch in a cafe and quick look around before heading off towards New Plymouth.