In New Plymouth. Looking back: some Europeans pulled up, worked the coast, lived with Māori, and kinda kick-started the whole England → NZ migration wave. Then yeah… pretty similar to Australia tbh — land grabs and clashes with the locals. Not exactly a wholesome chapter 😬 In fact, shameful.
So anyway, we biked down to the docks and cruised the shoreline where all that history went down. Then missioned out to Back Beach with its wild black sand (actually looks unreal). After that we rolled back along the coastal path, headed north past a golf course, crossed the stunning Rewa Rewa Bridge (designed to look like a whale skeleton which is kinda sick 🐋), then kept going past a bike park until the trail just… stopped like 10km later 😂
Whole way you get this insane view of Mt Taranaki — this massive volcano that just owns the skyline. Proper main-character mountain energy.
After that it was smoothie o’clock 🥤, a bit of shopping, then a quick feed back at the motel. We’re staying at the Asure on Courtenay. Pretty nice spot, just a bit noisy but we move.
