Blog 2. Taranaki
We first travelled to New Plymouth some 30 years ago, during what was my first visit to NZ. So in March 2023 we decided we had waited long enough to re-visit the Taranaki area. Mount Taranaki dominates the landscape and adds a great backdrop to many other wonderful photography locations. March isn’t perhaps the best time to shoot Mount Taranaki (no snow - or so we thought!), but we had a gap in the diary and Taranaki reached the top of the to visit list. One thing that I wasn’t quite prepared for was how large the area is. If you want to explore the whole area and visit all the main classic photography spots be prepared for a lot of driving (but the roads are good and pretty quiet once off the main highways). We managed to tick off most of our bucket list photo locations - 1. Lake Mangamahoe - one of the best spots for landscape shots with the mountain in the distance. We didn’t have much luck with the lighting at either dawn or dusk - clear skies and little colour, but it’s a pretty location and you can enjoy a walk whilst you’re there! 2. Cape Egmont Lighthouse - we were lucky to see both the lighthouse and mountain together (very briefly!) which made our several visits worth the effort. Note - there is a great little camp site at the nearby Cape Egmont fishing club, with toilets! 3. Wilkies Pools - a pretty spot but we didn’t have much inspiration from a photography perspective. It didn’t help that we arrived late morning and families were enjoying a refreshing dip!! 4. The 3 Sisters at Tongaporutu. A great freedom camping site gives easy access to the beach (only accessible at low tide - be careful!). The wind was blowing pretty hard which didn’t make for a pleasant visit (and you didn’t want to change lenses!), Heather managed some nice shots and we hope to go back for another try one day. 5. Kent Road - the classic shot of the road as a leading line to the mountain. We gave this a try but the conditions weren’t the best and neither were our shots! 6. Dawson Falls - access closed due the replacement of the stairs ( hmm, should have checked info site perhaps). Still, we enjoyed a short walk through the ‘Goblin Forest’ (which would be great to shoot in the mist). 7. Te Rewa Rewa Bridge - this was being repaired and was covered in scaffolding (drat). Still, the bike ride to the bridge, along the coastal track, dodging waves from a southerly swell, watching the surfers, was worth the effort. But during the ride we found out that the southerly change overnight had bought some snow to the top of the mountain. So a quick ride back to the camp site and drive out to a viewpoint of the mountain - only to find that the snow covered top was obscured by an annoying cloud (the rest of the sky was clear blue!). Can’t win them all. 8. Stoney River - we scouted two location on opposite sides of the river. One across a large boulder field (stoney river is an understatement), the other across overgrown fields and down a steep bank. Neither option provided inspiring compositions that made us want to return and scramble about at dawn/dusk.
All in all we really enjoyed our travels around Taranaki. The area provides some great and varied landscape photography opportunities. But as always, having the right conditions help. We’ll certainly be going back sometime over the winter in the hope of snow on the mountain and interesting skies (we don’t ask for much!) But next time we’ll be leaving our motorhome behind - it’s still stuck in Wellington due to the ferry problems!!
If you are planning to visit the Taranaki area and would like more information about the photo locations or places we stayed, please feel free to ask.
