Mt Taranaki

Mt Taranaki is a 2518m high dormant volcano situated about 5 hours drive from Wellington. From most angles the mountain has a perfect cone shape and looks like you think a volcano should look like. It also stands on its own in one of the flatter areas of New Zealand and is a superb sight to behold.

I have been wanting to climb the mountain pretty well since I have been over here, but a combination of sloth on my part, the long drive, unpredictable conditions and bad luck have meant that the peak has remained unsullied by my presence.

Some friends and I got tantalisingly close to the summit (http://glynnworldpartdeux.blogspot.co.nz/2009_03_01_archive.html) a couple of years ago but were beaten back by sheet ice.

I have been determined this year to watch less telly and get and about and do things and consequently have been more motivated than usual.

This particular trip was very much a spur of the moment job. I checked out the forecast for the Taranaki N.P on Thursday, which showed fine weather for the coming weekend. So it was a case on throwing some gear into the car and heading off to Taranaki straight after work on Friday.

My last attempt to climb the mountain was from the Dawson Falls roadend, but this time the decision was taken to walk a route from the North Egmont roadend (950m) instead. The reasoning being that the peak can be reached readily as a day walk from here as opposed to a 2-day trek from Dawson Falls.

I arrived at the roadend at about 10pm. There is accommodation available here at a lodge (The Camphouse) but it looked really busy, so as it was a dry mild night I decided to get the sleeping bag out and slept outside next to the car.

I set off the next morning at 5am on the first leg of the walk up to Tahurangi Lodge (1492m). This part of the route is on a well maintained service road so was a reasonably easy way to start proceedings.

The service road ended at the lodge and a proper tramping track then took over. For the next 30 minutes or so the route proceeds up a series of steps to the base of a scree slope. From here the going got much tougher as the scree was very slippery and awkward to walk on.

After a slog of 40 minutes or so the terrain, though ever upward, become more rocky and consequently easier going. I really enjoyed this next section as I could concentrate more on the views and less on where to put my feet. The view was indeed lovely, but also a little worrying as one could see a sea of cloud bubbling up from lower down the mountain. I was thinking about a tea break at this point but the advancing cloud put paid to that.

After another 40 minutes and much earlier than I anticipated I climbed over a rocky outcrop and found myself staring down into the summit crater. The crater has a permanent covering of ice and snow and which I had to cross to reach the summit on the other side.

The ice proved just a slippery as it looked, but I got across the crater quick enough. From here, after a steep 15-minute scramble, I reached the summit.

The view as expected was spectacular and this combined with warm still conditions made for a very pleasant experience.

After no more than 15 minutes the rising clouds reached the summit obscuring the view and really dropping the temperature as well. This definitely vindicated the decision to start off early and dispense with many breaks on the way up.

It was at this point that I decided that heading back down again would be a good idea.

The descent back down was misty but uneventful though I was very glad of the marker poles on the scree slope as veering off to the left by no more than a hundred metres would have been very dangerous (unfortunately this happens all to frequently on Mt Taranaki and is often fatal) due to high bluffs.

The visitor center at the roadend has a nice little café, so after the obligatory latte and carrot cake it was off on the long drive back to Wellington.




Steps, lots of steps. Above Tahurangi Lodge on the way to the scree slope.

On the scree slope.

Still on the scree slope. It snowed heavily the previous week and there were still a few patches left.


Part of the summit crater. I crosssed the ice, hung a right and scrambled up to the summit.

On the summit.

From the summit looking South.

Just below the summit. Note the cloud creeping up.

More of the summit crater.

This one shows the summit shrouded in cloud and was taken on the way back down.

RIP SV1000S, long live the Bandit 1250

After 6 years with my Suzuki SV1000S I have finally traded the old girl in for a Suzuki Bandit 1250.

The SV was a terrific machine and certainly the most complete “real world” bike I have owned. As is my want, the bike was modified somewhat over the years with additions including scorpion exhausts, heated grips, pack rack, scotoiller and a speedohealer.

Most of the mod’s have been to make the SV a more practical everyday machine, although the exhaust was mainly to give the engine more character. This was something it did in spades turning the bike from a two wheeled sowing machine sound-alike into a monstrous, very loud, foundation shaking V-Twin.

As modified, the SV was as powerful on the road as you would ever need, had real character, handled the bends very well and was also a reasonable tourer.

On the downside the bike like all big high revving twins was snatchy below 3000RPM necessitating lots of clutch slipping at very low speeds and this coupled with wrist ache from the low clip-on bars meant that it was a poor town bike. The fuel consumption was also not its best point.

This above is about it on the downside, as out of town at highway speeds the weight disappears from your wrists and the snatching isn’t an issue. All in all a tremendous bike, and in my opinion at least, far more than the sum of its parts.

A great bike for sure, but I felt it was time for a change. There were two main reasons for this, with the first simply being that I fancied something different and the second that riding wise, my focus these days is much more on the touring side of things.

I decided that I wanted a bike that was more comfortable than the SV, be semi-faired or naked and have either an in-line 3 or 4 motor for a change of feel and better in town manners.

Initial candidates were the Triumph Street Triple, Honda CB1300 and Suzuki GSX1400.

The Street Triple is the most shear fun machine I have ridden and was the favourite for quite a while, but to be honest wasn’t the best on long runs. On top of which one of my friends has a Triumph Daytona 675 that he has had no end of issues with including stranding him in the middle of nowhere the day after he brought it. It has since broken down several more times.

The CB1300 seemed to offer a lot, at least on paper, but which in reality was rather uninspiring with a surprising amount of engine vibration.

The GSX1400 is a fantastic “old school” retro looking bike with a brilliant engine. I looked at quite a number of these but never managed to find one without some kind of issue, most of which related to build quality (I am very picky on this subject), which tells a story in itself.

I was in a local garage looking at another GSX1400 when is spotted a black Bandit 1250. This wasn’t what I set out looking for but in reality ticked most of the right boxes, so took it out for a test ride.

The bike handled really nicely, was comfortable, had a super smooth fast engine and even sounded good. With the exception of the Street Triple it was also the most fun bike I test rode. Deal done.

The only real fault I can find so far is with surging at very low speed. This is caused by the bike running excessively lean and is a by-product of the bike meeting Euro 3 emission regulations. To correct this I have ordered a TFI box, O2 sensor eliminator and K&N filter from Dale Walker Holeshot. This should cure the problem and give me another 10bhp or so – very nice.


Yours truly.

The new wheels.