We got here at dusk last night and it was raining and a bit overcast. I went up to knock on the door of my friends, Gill and Andy, and it was their wedding anniversary and they weren't in. However, their babysitter gave me a mobile number and I called. Andy answered and said "Hello mate, at a concert, have to go!" and slammed the phone down. If you can slam a mobile down...
So all in all, last night, I didn't really like the place. On top of which, the main feature of the place is the view of Taranaki, which on a good day, looks like this...
...but yesterday, looked like this...
So, it seemed like I'd missed Gill and Taranaki and Andy completely.
However, a bit later on, I got a text message from Andy, apologising for slamming the phone down on me, but they were at a concert and the act had just come on and they had forgotten to turn the phone off and they were getting very disapproving looks from other members of the audience. In addition, they had just assumed I was another English friend of theirs called Ian who was just phoning them inconveniently at a concert and hadn't come 12,000 miles to see them.
So we arranged to meet for breakfast this morning, and I went to their house...
..and caught up with them and their two boys (Beck, 8 and Calum, 5), who are absolute stars!
However, Andy had to leave for work (New Plymouth Boys' High School) and so I only saw him for ten minutes.
But when he got to work, he was able to arrange to come into town for a while during a free period and so we all had coffee together in a place called Chaos (more about their hot chocolate elsewhere...) and generally caught up on all our news and, more importantly, made sure we had each other's contact details absolutely correct. And here we are...
(We were happier than we look!)
After this, New Plymouth took on a sunnier aspect, and even though we never saw the mountain, the town was a nicer place to be..
There is a very ornate clock tower...
...and even the bendy light thing (The Wind Wand) looked more interesting...
But it was time to say goodbye and press on North...
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