After my road trip day in Cathedral Cove, I packed my stuff, loaded my van and left on the roads Monday, October 8th afternoon! I had a week in the North Island before I took the ferry on Sunday morning.

• Taranaki

The weather is a little capricious that week in the North Island I adapted my ride with the weather application by my side 😅. I would ideally go down quietly to mount Taranaki but it was raining from Wednesday 😥. So I made the full ride on Monday afternoon to stop sleeping at the botanical Garden of Pukeiti. There are no signs but I sent a mail to be sure and we can spend the night (all the parking). There is a toilet open all night and even a free hot shower!! This is the luxury 😉. Before sunset I could see the mountain without cloud!

On Tuesday morning the sky was unfortunately cloudy… So I decided not to hike. Attention to the passage the Mangorei road is closed until the end of November! I’m going to the parking of the Edmont Park waiting for a little thinning to take a picture. That’s all I could get :

• Three sisters and Elephant Rock

Then I went up on the road to see this superb spot! I had seen the Elephant rock from the road the day before and it had impressed me! Be careful you can only go for a walk at low tide. And be careful when the sand is too wet it’s moving!! Unfortunately the elephant lost its trunk in an earthquake 😥.

• Napier

After a stop at Taupo for the night (difficult even in SC!) I headed to Napier where the sun seemed to shine still a few days! So I crossed the North island from west to east…

I took a little walk by the beach of Waimarama, almost deserted

And the Maraetotara falls.

I spent the night near the beach. A little noisy with the road but a really sublime sunrise from my bed!

After a little walk to Napier looking for Street art I went down to Cape Palliser!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

• Cap Palliser

I arrived at the end of the day. I knew the weather the following days were not great. So I climbed the walk to the lighthouse.

Then admired the colony of seals.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

And a beautiful Elephant seal!!

I then went to spend the night at the free camp parking lot by the seaside. Beautiful sunset! But quite windy…

• Drive to Wellington

From Friday all the south of the North Island was rainy. I took the opportunity to do a chill break and go to a library to do my blog a little 😊. Besides, there is a great French bakery in Featherston! I had spotted where to do my laundry (Lower Hutt) before arriving on Saturday in Wellington. The ferry being scheduled on Sunday morning I went early to the parking lot to rest a bit before the South Island!