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New Zealand: Day 67: Trip to Mount Taranaki and Forgotten World Highway: Day 1

Slovenia had a national holiday today, called Prešeren Day. It is an anniversary of the death of Slovenian poet France Prešeren, who wrote many poems including our national anthem, Zdravljica (A Toast in English).

 

France Prešeren and original manuscript of "Zdravljica"

After work me and my Red Sonja started the three day journey to the Taranaki region.

Leaving my "home" in Avalon, Lower Hutt

Short stop at the top of Paekakariki Hill, a nice detour from SH1

Surf Highway. Name promised a lot, but in the end it was just a boring ride.

Mount Taranaki, the reason of this weekend trip showed up

Opunake beach

The first recorded European sighting of Cape Egmont was made on 27. December 1942 by Abel Tasman, who gave the name Nieuw Zeeland to the unknown land he had come upon. He called the cape Cabo Pieter Boreels. Mt. Egmont/Taranaki/Puke Haupapa was hidden by cloud.
Found a geocache here, Cape Cache, GCD30C and took the trackable item Sky City - Adelaide, TB4V4DY, with me.

23456,7 miles

 

 Sugar Loaf Islands and Paritutu rock are remnants of a large volcano that was active nearly 2 million years ago

 

Nice view to Tasman Sea, New Plymouth and Mount Taranaki from the Paritutu rock

View towards Tasman Sea to the West

 

Evening ride to the base of Mount Taranaki and my dinner in a free camping place

Friday ride to base of Mount Taranaki. 

And our Hockey Team in Slovenia continues with great results. They beat Denmark and sensationally qualified to the Olympic Games in Sochi 2014. Result was 2:1. 2 times scorer for Slovenia was David Rodman. Read more: "Shocker! Slovenia to Sochi"

Great job guys!

ABOUT SLOVENIA HOCKEY

Member Since May 6, 1992 Total Players 924 Male Players 148 Junior Players 707 Female Players 69 Total Referees 50 Indoor Rinks 7 Outdoor Rinks 1 Nation Population 1,996,617 President Matjaz Rakovec Men's World Ranking 18th Women's World Ranking 20th

Slovenia has one professional team (which plays in the Austrian league) and altogether around 140 senior or pro players and will play in a group in Olympic Games with Russia, USA and Slovakia, which all have more than 2000 players. Statistics about the countries: Russia, USA, Slovakia, Slovenia.

And a great interview with our coach Matjaž Kopitar. Read it at iihf.com.