Sun 1st March: To Stratford

I decided to take a chance on going up to Stratford today to see Mt Taranaki. The town of Stratford is also curious. Its the closest town to Taranaki and is named after Shakespeare's home town. Many of the streets are named after characters from his plays. I end up staying in Romeo st!! Apt or what??? It sounds like a quirky little place but its Taranaki I really want to see.

Leaving Wellington on yet another dull damp morning it brightens up as we head north but the day remains showery. We leave Wellington at 10am. Its a 6hr journey to Stratford with a 40min break at Palmerton North.

Approaching Stratford the lower slopes of Taranaki were visible but the upper half of the mountain was covered by heavy rain clouds. Showere could be seen sweeping across the lower slopes. In Statford, however, the afternoon had brought bright sunshine. Once I found the Hostel it didn't take too long to look around town which consisted of one main street. It was like many of the small towns I'd seen through the American mid-West. The kind of place you barely noticed if you passed through on a car or, on a bike, you might stop to buy a drink and keep moving. In the centre of town there was a tall clock tower. It was supposed to look like a Tudor building of the 16th century but it didn't succeed. At certain times of the day small figurines emerge from the tower to recite passages from Romeo and Juliet. I passed by at 7pm on my way to the supermarket as the little 'performance' took place and I joined 5-6 other blow-ins to stand and watch. That was about as exciting as it got in Stratford. There was one Irish bar on the main street but when I looked in it was empty. As the evening darkened and Taranaki remained shrouded and out of sight I wondered if I'd wasted a day making this journey.