Mt Taranaki Day 152 17/02/2015

The plan for today was to walk up Mt Taranaki, formerly known as Egmont, a classic 2518m volcanic cone that dominates the landscape around New Plymouth. It last erupted over 350 years ago and is apparently overdue another one! It took a while for us to get going in the morning, not least because we switched the alarm off by mistake rather than putting it one snooze but by 8am had arrived at North Egmont visitors centre, the start of the summit track. After signing the register we set off. It's a 12.6km return route with 1572m of ascent (basically straight up!). The first 1.5 hours is a walk up a 4WD track through lovely bush to a privately owned hut. It's known locally as the 'Puffer" due to the incline! From here the route continues up Hongi Valley and then climbs a heap of steps to 1950m where you meet the scree slopes of the North Ridge. It's nearly 200m up the scree, two steps forward one step back, until you finally reach the rocky rib know as the Lizard. We'd accidentally veered off the route a little bit and headed up a very step scree run before finally rejoining the main track. Luckily for us the mist had come in a little and blocked the sun making it a bit more bearable and obliterating the view of the summit which was still a long way off. We continued on up the Lizard, finally stopping for a breather at Diane's request, and up to the entrance of the crater and a small snow field. From here you head up the west rim and clamber up rocks to finally reach the summit. The area is sacred to Maori and walkers are asked to respect the mountain by not standing directly on the summit peak. We obliged although a number of other people made straight for the short rock boulder at the top. We'd seen a number of people on the way up and there were several groups on the summit when we arrived but nothing like the volume of traffic at Tongariro. The summit was lovely and clear with an inversion around most of mountain with the exception of south east where you could see out to the Tasman Sea. We sat enjoying the views having lunch before setting off on the long descent along the same route. As we headed down the scree the mist came in again and we heard a helicopter to the north of where we were, hovering for a period of time before flying off. Later we were chatting to a guy who said it was a rescue helicopter. Hopefully nothing too serious. We stopped for second lunch, and to empty our boots of stones, at the hut before the final leg back down the "Puffer" to the visitors centre. We arrived in time for tea and savoury scones before driving back to the campsite. We were both filthy from the dust and in desperate need of a shower but treated ourselves to beer first to help celebrate another fabulous day in the mountains. We'd decided to go out for pizza and, after asking for recommendations from the guy at the campsite, headed off to a local pizzeria to find it only did takeaway. Simon headed back to the campsite to get the van whilst Diane ordered and we enjoyed pizza alfresco before heading off to bed exhausted. Tomorrow we really are going to have a rest day!

Mt Taranaki - 12.6km and 1572m to the summit!

 Heading up the 'Puffer' 

 

The long and steep steps

At last off the scree and heading up the Lizard 

Clambering around the rocks 

Reaching the crater and small snow field 

Finally reaching top and clear blue skies  

Mt Taranaki summit

Summit panorama