Egmont Village - Mount Taranaki

Mount Taranaki
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From Wanganui we drove towards the Taranaki province, famous for Mount Taranaki, an elegant conical volcano rising 2518m from the subtropical coast to its icy summit.

The mountain can be climbed from 3 access routes in Egmont National Park and we decided to stay in Egmont Village, closest to North Egmont, from where people can climb the summit. We stayed at the weird backpackers called "The Missing Leg', run by Brian and Jo. Brian told us all about the maoris in the area and mentioned that they buried the second-last maori the day before. Apparently he received a traditional Maori buriel, with hardly any clothes and buried in a Maori canoe.

Mount Taranaki - view from a lake in Egmont Village
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We decided not to climb the summit though, as it would take us about 8 hrs and the weather forecast looked dodgy. The upper mountain is off limits to ordinary hikers in winter, but even during the summer hiking season bad weather, including occasional snow, sweeps in frighteningly quickly, and hikers starting off on a fine morning frequently find themselves groping through low cloud before the day is through.

We did a 4 hour walk (part of the track was called 'The Puffer', guess why) through the hiden valley of the Goblin forest, with alpine plants and trunks hung with ferns and mosses (getting up to 1500m). Very pretty and with great views of the mountain.