What a night! Never stay in a small town on the Main Street....river view or not! With a backpackers hostel next door. All night long there was yelling, thumping, laughing, whistling and yes 5 gun shots followed by 4 police cars! Needless to say a bad nights sleep! But morning changes all! Got up and went for an hours walk along river...to one bridge, across it and along the river the other side to the next bridge, crossed it and home. It was sunny and hot! Kayaks were out training and all was beautiful and peaceful! Not for long though...by the time we had breakfast, Fred and I went for a stroll and we got on our way, cyclone Lusi decided it was time to show up. So it was very very windy..gusty..and wet...driving was difficult but we made it safe and sound. Stopped half way at Nigel Ogle's Tawhiti museum...it was fantastic! He builds life size displays and scale models to capture the past. So real like. Most people are casts of locals he has built with their permission building a cast from their faces. The little figures he molds from wax. You have to see it to believe it! There are two museums...one more traditional and one called traders and whalers which takes you on a boat ride...both excellent. He also has Mr Badgers coffee shop named after The Wind in the Willows. He has built scenes from the book into models built into the walls of the cafe...unreal! We stayed at auto motel in New Plymouth which was lovely..had views to the ocean which was sooo wild today! Had a lovely restaurant which was great as the weather was wild, windy and cold and we did not want to venture out...but did do my laps in a nice indoor pool before dinner,