Glimpses of Mt Taranaki

New Plymouth, October 2017

“There’s an enormous volcano somewhere behind those clouds,” Flemming said, as we drove out of New Plymouth towards our home for the week, in the verdant foothills of what a grim blanket of cloud that day.

Gary luxurious “Shed” is in a section of the Taranaki region that used to be farming country. Built as a temporary home for his family while their actual one was being constructed just up the hill, it lies, like many other non-farming residences, along the windy road between dairy farms. In clear moments, you can see Mount Taranaki, the snow capped volcano that gave the region its name, from the front yard.

The mountain is everywhere. It dominates every view from town, outside of town, around the entire region… but only on rare days when its summit (2518m) is clear of its customary cloud blanket.

We were lucky, we got two of those.