My Bike Ride to Work - Coastal Walkway

Wow, it has been a very good, but very busy week, with the unfortunate ending of me getting quite sick. As I mentioned before, you always get sick within the first month of starting at a new centre with all its new bugs, so no surprises there. Friday and Saturday were awful, but today is getting better, and tomorrow I'm sure will be fine.

More importantly, I have finally compiled and uploaded a selection of pictures from my bike ride to work every day! 

I bike 8km (5m) each way every day, from my house in New Plymouth to my work in Bell Block. It is a stunningly beautiful bike ride along the New Plymouth Coastal Walkway, from which I can see the beautiful ocean and the beautiful mountain every day!

 In the morning, I bike a little way through New Plymouth (not bad, but not exciting either), but then I come down a hill and there is the ocean right in front of me! Whoosh - instant good mood, every day! 

Then, in the afternoon, I bike a little way through Bell Block (not bad, but not exciting either), but then I reach the top of a hill, and there's Mount Taranaki! Boom - instant good mood, every day!

And the amazing thing is - you can see the ocean and the mountain all the way along the way, just by looking to your left or to your right. Wow!

Also, at the moment, given that it is the beginning of winter, I am biking to work just after sunrise and biking home from work (most days), just before sunset, so I get to see some of the sky's most beautiful displays.

Green and growing - remember, this is the beginning of "winter." No wonder my sense of seasons is all confused!

I have always been an ocean person, and I am so thankful and amazed that I live right next to one!

Loving all the striking colours!

This is the Te Rewa Rewa bridge. It was built as a connection between New Plymouth and Bell Block, and is on a Māori "rewa rewa" (burial ground), making it sacred.

"The designer, Peter Mulqueen, is quoted as saying he understood that the bridge should "touch lightly" on the Rewa Rewa side of the river, in order to honour the deceased. This ruled out heavier designs like cable stays and angular truss structures. Mulqueen wanted to achieve a bridge with a "harmonious and dignified character." With the ribs yielding to the prevailing wind, the bridge is aligned to Mount Taranaki. The sacred mountain is framed within the skewed arch when viewed while leaving the sacred ground - promising what is eternal" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Te_Rewa_Rewa_Bridge).

See? You can see the mountain through the bridge! How amazing is it that I get to see this every day!?!

This is looking back from the bridge, which crosses the Waiwhakaiho River.

This is part of the walkway. Only bits of it are boardwalk (the rest is paved), but I love the rhythm my bike tires make on the wood planks. Often, there is someone sitting on many of these benches, just watching the sea.

Me on the bridge! When I stopped to take (yet another) picture one day, these two ladies had stopped for the same reason, and offered to take a picture for me, which was lovely.

This is Mount Taranaki over the Waiwhakiaho River and Bridge. I go under the bridge on a little bike trail (on the right side) each morning, so I don't have to deal with the traffic, which is apparently quite bad.

This is one of my favourite bits of my bike ride, because it is a bit downhill slope towards the sea, and I can let loose and just enjoy all the wonderful sensations.

Sunrise over Lake Rotomatu, which I pass right before I get to the Te Rewa Rewa Bridge.

That same morning, these are those gorgeous sunrise colours splashed onto the bridge and the mountain.

Last, but not least, this is the end of my ride each afternoon - Mount Taranaki over our neighbourhood (Glen Avon). You can't see the mountain from our house, because it is quite tucked in among loads of trees, but you don't have to go far to be able to appreciate its beauty.

In fact, my overall impression of Taranaki and New Plymouth is that you never have to go very far at all to be able to appreciate all kinds of beauty!