Hello everyone, how are you doing today? Hope you are all having a great day!
Today I wanted to post about something a bit different, an event that happens every year in my home town of New Plymouth. Every year in the summer months (December to February) the city's main park, Pukekura Park, gets decorated with lights and different scenes/events take place all around the park every night. Although the park is always a beautiful place to visit, in the long summer nights it becomes a whole new atmosphere... A whole new park almost!
All of the trees are decorated with lights, and even some of the pebbles and stones become glow in the dark. Every night events will be held such as public movies, or music events, and this makes the park an awesome place to hang out in in summer. I believe it is one of the biggest tourist attractions of my city, and it is definitely one of the most famous!
If you ever have the chance to visit New Zealand in the summer I would highly recommend visiting here as it is quite a spectacle to see!
In summer, nearly the whole park is lit up, down to tiny little stones that litter the pathway. This means that waterfalls must be lit up too, right? Of course!
Every few seconds the colours of the waterfall change to a new display. I definitely like the rainbow colours the most, but there are so many different variations!
Although the waterfall is a stunning place to take photos, I think it is a rather small and unimportant part of the park as a whole. The park is made up of two large lakes, and many other water features such as the waterfall, and some creeks that flow through the park. This means that as well as people, there is a lot of wildlife in the park such as ducks and geese (not to mention eels and fish under the surface!). In summer, the park is also full of butterflies and other life! It's a great place to go whether you want nature of a bit of a small city feel. There are cafes and ice cream shops in the park, as well as nice private places that are out of the way and offer some amazing views.
The image below is of the main lake with the lights from the banks and one of the bridges reflecting on the surface. Row boats can be hired if you want to have a nice calming row along the lake, and scenic tracks allow you to walk around the edges in a circuit if that is what you would prefer.
This year one of the main attractions was the lighting on the main bridge of the lake. The bridge was covered in lights that lit up different colours at different times and made for an amazing feeling to walk through. Not only that, but the lights reflect off the surface of the lake and make the whole park even more stunning!
You can see some boats passing under the bridge. There are also some islands in the lake that you can row around, but you aren't allowed on them due to wildlife protection.
This year the smaller lake was covered in what were essentially floating light bubbles. These lights lit up all different colours and looked amazing when paired with the water fountain in the centre!
As you walk through the park you also can't help but notice some of the smaller details and displays that can be seen around the park. While walking around the park I randomly came across some lit up objects that appeared to be jellyfish!
The Taranaki Festival of Lights is one of my favourite things to visit each year, and I think New Plymouth is very proud to host it. Every year new displays are displayed around the park, and no two years are ever the same. I don't think I can ever do it justice in pictures, but it is an amazing place to visit on a long summer's night! Also, the park is a very decent size, so if you want some exercise it can also be a great place to go!
Thanks for reading everyone, I hope you enjoyed seeing a little bit about the area that I am from :) Please feel free to provide feedback or comment, and please follow if you want to see more photos in the future!