Pukekura Park
When you visit Pukekura Park you always hope that Mount Taranaki will be visible over the bridge on the lake. The reality is that rainfall in Taranaki increases in almost exponential proportion to your proximity to the summit of said mountain, and at the actual top, you're likely to see around 3m of rain each year.
So the absolutely normal reality, is that you arrive at Pukekura Park, and there are clouds to the south enshrouding the mountain.
In this case we were visiting for a few days and in that time we did actually manage to see the peak for several hours one morning - perhaps I should post one of those photos next :-)
Here is the rainfall map for Taranaki for the month of July 2008 (this is winter in the southern hemisphere, of course):
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK0808/S00090.htm