Mount Taranaki

We drove from Waitomo down the beautiful west coast, which is under explored by tourists. This area is known locally as the Surf Highway as there are so many sandy beaches perfect for surfing. We passed New Plymouth and headed to the tip of the West coast to Cape Egmont lighthouse. We were lucky enough to catch sight of Mount Taranaki in the background. Local friends told us that they rarely see the top of the mountain as it is usually covered in cloud. In fact this is the site that the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman documented landing, however he did not document the mountain being present as it was completely obscured from view by the clouds at the time. As we were with our campervan we were able to pull over at this quiet spot and get out our chairs to watch the spectacular sunset alongside Mt Taranaki.