Fifty shades of green
New Zealand dispatch #4
In this fourth dispatch, we're in very green Taranaki on the southwest coast of New Zealand's North Island. Here we find water in surf, cloud, rain, and harvested rainwater, and meet a couple of fellow Substack writers. Follow the links to find more on travel and triathlons through the lens of water.
Surf
We have a mostly fine day for our next move from Napier to Taranaki through farm country and over the saddle road that crosses the southern end of east coast axial range, a pretty, winding road past wind farms and iconic sheep-filled hills. We drive on through Palmerston North, along the scenic Surf Highway, and down a dirt road to our destination atop a low bluff above a rocky surf beach, with dairy farms and a volcano behind us and pounding surf just over the bluff. The area feels a little like the northern California coast.
Rainwater
Our AirBnB is a bach, pronounced "batch", a New Zealand term for a holiday cabin. We learn that the drinking water here is rainwater collected from the large, sloping roof and stored in an underground concrete tank. The water is given no treatment other than filtration. Rainwater harvesting turns out to be very common in New Zealand and I'm curious about it. Can it be a useful addition to water sources in the Pacific Northwest? Are we too strict at home in our limitations on the use of harvested rainwater as a source of drinking water? I'll look into these questions and more in a future post.
Dairy
On our first full day, we headed into the regional city of New Plymouth. The abundant rainfall makes Taranaki dairy country. We spotted a huge plant belonging to Fonterra, a New Zealand company that is a world leader in the dairy industry. Abundant year-round rainfall means that cows can be outside all year and eating grass for most of it. It certainly more sense than keeping dairy cows in CAFOs in the desert and feeding them alfalfa irrigated with Colorado or Columbia River water or scarce ground water. Dairy's impact on the environment—water, climate, biodiversity—is one of the reasons we're vegan. Even in this dairy-centric district, we were able to find a great vegan cafe in New Plymouth.
With an eye on the weather, I also bought a better rain jacket.
Rainforest
Egmont National Park is famously visible from space. It's border is an almost perfect circle around its centerpiece, the volcano Mount Taranaki. The park boundary shows up as the contrast between the dark green of the subtropical rainforest inside the park and the lighter green of the dairy pasture outside.
As is more often than not the case, the mountain was obscured by clouds. We decided to drive up to visitor center anyway and perhaps hike. When we got to the visitor center, we were in the clouds and couldn't see the other side of the parking lot, so no hike for us today.
Mini Substack meetup #1
Before we left for New Zealand, I had reached out to both of Mostly Water's North Island subscribers in the hope that we might be able to meet. Kate Atkinson writes Kate's New Zealand Chronicles, and Small Glories with Kate Atkinson, and writes lovingly about New Zealand and her family home in Taranaki. Although she's currently living and working in Christchurch on the South Island, she happened to be visiting family in Taranaki at the exact time we were there, so we were able to meet for coffee.
I'm here to report that Kate is every bit as lovely and inspiring as she is in this video: Small Glory #27 - Halfway Through 1 Year of Wild Swimming. If you'd like a little joy in your inbox, please go ahead and subscribe to Kate's publications.
Clouds
The mountain was still hidden in the clouds, so we opted to head into New Plymouth and rent bikes to ride the Coastal Walkway and bike path past the beaches. Here's the iconic view of Mount Taranaki through the Te Rewa Rewa bridge, as seen in the tourist brochures and as seen by us.
On our last day in Taranaki, we still couldn't see the mountain but resolved to hike anyway. We headed up to the Mangorei Track trailhead, where a good number of hikers from around the world had the same plan as us, namely, to hike up to the Pouakai Circuit Reflective Tarn, where we hoped to get a view of the mountain. The hike starts out on a boardwalk, which soon turns into a series of steps. 3000 steps. Some were decent wooden steps; others resembled a fish ladder of ankle-deep muddy puddles. Puddles because, appropriately for a rain forest, it was raining a good bit of the time. The rainforest, though, was spectacular. There were tree ferns and other plants, and birds and bird sounds everywhere. After a couple of hours, 2,300 feet, and 3,000 steps, we arrive in the cloud, with the mountain still nowhere to be seen.
On the very day that Chloe Hope published this piece, featuring a blackbird, a female Blackbird crashed into one of the closed panes and then somehow passed through an open one onto the couch where she lay, breathing heavily. She allowed me to pick her up and place her on the deck where she rested, beak open at first, until she had composed herself. When she was ready, she flew off and after a rain shower was back with her mate looking for supper in the grass. I remember these beautiful birds fondly from growing up in England and have enjoyed seeing and hearing them here in New Zealand.
Mini Substack meetup #2
On Christmas Eve, we left Taranaki to drive north to our next destination, the Bay of Islands, over eight hours away. We finally get to see Mount Taranaki in the rear-view mirror!
We broke the journey in Auckland to meet Melanie Newfield, botanist and writer, over lunch. Melanie writes The Turnstone, where she uncovers stories on climate change, water quality, biodiversity, genetics, invasive species, vaccines, biosecurity, and islands. Melanie has a gift for explaining complex topics in plain language and is well worth the subscribe.
We really enjoyed the opportunity to meet and our couple of hours together flew by.
After that welcome break in our journey, we continued our journey to the ferry that would take us to our home for the next week in the Bay of Islands.
Thanks, as always, for reading. I'm writing to you today from an airport hotel in Honolulu, where we're overnighting on our way home. In the next post, I'll be writing about our time in the Bay of Islands.
For triathlon travel next year, we'll be revisiting Oceanside, California and Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, before finishing the season with another visit to Ironman 70.3 Worlds, this time in Marbella, Spain. There's also a trip to Italy in the works. I'll be writing about all of them, along with the water issues that are sure to find me in each place. To make sure you don't miss these posts, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
It was great to meet you and Brenda. I'm only sorry I didn't have more time. And also that you had so much rain here. It might be what keeps the country green, but it's a pain sometimes.
I think I’ll be thinking about drinking filtered rainwater for a long time.
Love your encounters—human, cloud, crow!