Wanganui

Mount Taranaki


White Cliffs Organic Brewery

09.16.08: We drove north from Wellington for a few hours and finally decided to stop for the night in the town of Wanganui, along the west coast of New Zealand’s north island. After checking out this campground that had a shower and toilet for every campervan sight, we decided that a tiny grass “parking lot” behind a motel with little outhouses between each sight was a little too crowded for our taste. So instead, we went to a campground near Castlecliff beach and surf break. The beaches on the west coast are a lot more rugged, with black sand and a lot of driftwood, rather than the white sand and gorgeous blue waters of the east coast. Unfortunately, the waves at Castlecliff were also pretty blown out. So, we had dinner, an early night, checked the barely breaking waves the next morning and continued our drive up north.

Highway 3 meandered along the coast for a few hours but then cut inland when we got near the Taranaki District, aka Cape Egmont. This area looks pretty strange on the map. It sticks out from the island and has a huge mountain, Mount Taranaki, right in the middle of it. The mountain is high enough to get snow and is a ski area. Driving up to it reminded us of driving towards Mount Bachelor in Oregon. The strange thing about this mountain though, is that all around it is coastline. So, you can actually be at the beach with a snowy mountain as your backdrop. Although you can take Highway 45, aka The Surf Highway, along the coast around Mount Taranaki, we opted to drive right up north to the town of New Plymouth to check it out first.

In New Plymouth, we found some decent waves at Fitzroy beach. I was a little lazy. So, I let Sean go out first while I stayed in the camper and took a quick nap. Kailani played around with and inside the big box that we store the surfboard in. She keeps asking for a playhouse, but Sean thinks that we can get away with giving her a large cardboard box and cut window holes in it. ;-) Unfortunately, the tide started dropping and waves died right as Sean went out. So, by the time he finished, there was no use for me to go. We hit the road again.

Just as Kailani fell asleep for her afternoon nap and we were all ready to make some tracks, we come upon some signs that say “Brewery coming up in 1200 liters”, etc. I didn’t think we were going to stop until we came upon the actual brewery and noticed that it was an organic brewery. White Cliff brewery, in the middle of nowhere, was one of six organic breweries in all of New Zealand (and one of two on the North Island). We tasted a wonderful Mike’s Mild Ale that reminded me of a chocolaty porter and had a nice and refreshing conversation with the owner, originally a school teacher from South Africa, who really takes pride in her organic, non-filtered and non-pasteurized brew (fermented and non-pasteurized being especially good for digestive health). They also sold some organic Feijoa Sparkling Wine, a Plum Port and Pinot Noir from the South Island. Along with some organic macadamia nuts, we walked out with a little of everything. With all these bottles of organic wine and beer and only a week left in New Zealand, I’m sure we’ll be leaving with some of it. I also came upon a brochure there, advertising the web site, organicexplorer.com, listing organic food, eco-accommodation and ecotourism businesses. I haven’t been online to check it out, but am still a little bummed that I again didn’t know about this when we were planning our trip here. But what can you do?

Again, we got in the car thinking that we were now going to make tracks. But further down the road, Kailani woke up and we ended up stopping at the town of Mokau looking for something to eat. Seeing as it proclaims to be the whitebait capital, we went to The Whitebait Inn where I ordered a whitebait burger. Whitebait seems to be one of the country’s favorite foods and are little white fish, smaller than anchovies, that are caught in rivers and streams using a net. The burger was pretty good, as well was the fried oysters and scallops that Sean ordered….of course, accompanied with chips. Finally, we headed off and made tracks to Raglan.