New Plymouth – New Zealand Where Mount Egmont Taranaki Reigns in Beauty!

New Plymouth is a perfect city (declared a city in 1949) to spend a day shopping, supporting the businesses that put their life savings and energy into making New Plymouth that special place for any visitor, wanting a day of that wonderful feeling of well-being by having a day to remember for months to come.

Centre City shopping Centre – the hub of Taranaki shopping, in New Plymouth, with over 55 shops and services, like Farmers, Glassons, Hallensteins, Max, Amazon, to name a few, no matter what you are looking for it is there. Walking around the shops, the smell of great food inviting you to stop, have a break, light snack, coffee, sitting by the window watching the waves rolling in and out, each of which has its own particular vista of striking beauty.

Something I have never forgotten from my early childhood, is New Plymouth had an electric tram service from 1916 to 1954 I can still stop at the top of Devon street and see those tram cars, and wonder, how the cars never hit them and people never got run over.

You can walk out of the Centre City shopping center right on to the Coastal Walkway, soon to be a 10 km path that forms an expansive sea-edge promenade stretching almost the entire length of the city, the pathway is ideal for walking, running, cycling or skating, or simply enjoying the view of the dramatic west coast but a great walk that everyone should do, a experience you will never forget.

For a short walk, you can reach Pukekura Park which is known world-wide, is famous and is a fairyland of green foliage and silver lakes.
Huge tree ferns and other lacy natives give a subtropical effect and the fernery, with its botanical curiosities, is worth a journey to relax after shopping on a hot day. Small bridges over the lake intersections from where one gets a glimpse of the glistening summit of Mount Egmont/Taranaki.

Something New Plymouth and Taranaki can be proud of is we have the region’s financial center, the home of the TSB Bank (formerly the Taranaki Savings Bank), and it is the only non-government New Zealand-owned bank.

New Plymouth District has a population of nearly 70,000 people, which all the people and businesses have contributed to make it a city of great beauty to service the Centre region’s principal economic activities, including intensive pastoral activities (mainly dairy farming) as well as oil, natural gas and petrochemical exploration and production.

It is a city that offers something for everyone, so a great big thanks to all, you the people and businesses of New Plymouth and surrounding districts making the city as it is, a city of beauty, love, trust and friendliness. A special Thanks to the Mayor of New Plymouth Peter Tennent.

New Plymouth won the Top Town award from North and South Magazine in 2008 and was judged “the best place in New Zealand to live, love, work and raise a family”.

Find out more about New Plymouth and its Businesses at http://newplymouthguide.com Elsie Hagley is a long time passionate resident of Taranaki and supporter of local business.