GLYNN WORLD Part Deux: 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.