Feb 1 ?

Diane left early for school, so, we took off  for Mt Taranaki or Mt Egmont, as it's called by both names. It was a bit rainy and very foggy,  so we couldn't see the top of the over 8000 ft. high mountain/volcano. The visitor's area was nice to see, but it was disappointing that we couldn't see the peak. We looked at the exhibits, and then, off to New Plymouth. The woman at the visitor's center had told us about a nice place for lunch at the harbour, so that's where we were headed. However, when we arrived, it was closed on Mondays, so.... We found another spot on the water and had a bite there, watching the boats sailing around. There was a fin in the water in the small anchorage, which looked like a shark's fin but it was stationery, so we asked. Turns out that it was a marker for the owner of the restaurant who did his own fishing. He could tell the depth of the water depending on how much of the fin showed. There were a couple of manta rays swimming near where we were eating. Beautiful to watch.

I'm going to skip a few days as I'm having too good of a time to spend a lot of it writing. Although, I am enjoying the writing, we're spending our evenings with people, so it makes it difficult to use to the computer, and we don't always have wifi, so we have to use their computers instead of ours.. So much has gone on, with sightseeing, experiencing new foods, and all the marketing we've been doing. I'll try to add things as I go along, but maybe I'll start again with the 4th, when we crossed from Wellington to Picton, on the 3 1/2 hr ferry ride.

I keep meaning to mention the toilets here. Most have two different buttons to push, one is a half flush and the other is the full flush. The half usually works well. But until I discovered what they were, I was pushing both buttons! Look at all the new experiences we're having.

I've thought about having my computer in the car and writing then, but if I did that, I'd miss the fabulous scenery we were passing, so that won't work. It's been incredible. A lot of the roads have been really winding, up and down mountains, overlooking the different bodies of water, such as the Tasman Sea. I hope we get to go sailing somewhere. Maybe once we get back to North Island.

Will write more later.