Pizza, Rugby, Falls, and more

We had another adventurous pizza from a local kiwi place called "Hell". They have some very interesting choices for pizza toppings! We picked one called Damned, it had camembert, cashews, spinach, sundried tomatoes, avocado, mushrooms, onions, pineapple, black pepper, and we added pepperoni. It was quite tasty! And the pizza box has a cutout to fold into a coffin for your left overs. So convenient! Check out the website and see which pizza you might like to try. http://hellpizza.co.nz

Friday night we attended our first Rugby game! It was at Yarrow Stadium, which lucky for us is about 3 blocks away. Taranaki played against Waikato but lost in the last few minutes. We enjoyed beer in the can and some tasty little donuts with cinnamon and sugar. They were like mini donut shaped sopapillas. We also got our hands autographed in very permanent marker by the mascot, Ferdinand the Bull.

Saturday we took a drive around the east side of Mt. Taranaki to Stratford. From here we went into Egmont National Park, the Dawson Falls area. There we saw the oldest operating simple hydro-electric power station. It was built by General Electric Company, New York, no earlier than 1896. Originally used for power generation in Tasmania, it was sold to the New Zealand Army for use at the Trentham Military Camp near Wellington until the eventual arrival of mains power to the Wellington Region in 1922. The Dawson Falls power station has provided heating and lighting more or less continuously since 1935 by way of a pelton wheel, which turns 300 revolutions per minute, giving an output of 27 kilowatts of electricity. We then took a short but very wet, muddy, and chilly hike into Dawson Falls.

A little north of the falls is where the Manganui Ski Club (ski field) is located. The field is closed and has been for several weeks due to lack of snow. When people ski here they have to park in the lot then hike about 30 minutes to get to the base lodge. From there they have the choice of two lifts or one trail with a lift to bring you back to the lodge. This is the highest point on Mt. Taranaki you can drive.

In order to prepare us for our upcoming adventures with Black Betty we decided to add a little prep-table to the back. Jilling had the wood for us so we just had to track down the hinges, screws, and bolts. This from now on is our "kitchen".