On the road to the South, we make a little one-day detour to visit an other giant: Mt Taranaki. The volcano ends beautifully our journey on the Forgotten World Highway, its majestic 2518 m high perfect cone watching over all the south-east coast of the North Island. After having reached the summits of Mt Tongariro, Mt Ngauruhoe and Mt Ruapehu, we couldn’t resist to the hypnotic call of Mt Taranaki’s!
Warming up around Mt Taranaki’s base
We leave on the morning the nice free campground where we spent the night to drive up the slope to the starting point of the walking track. At 9:00, we are ready to go! You can choose between several tracks to get up Mt Taranaki summit. We picked one slightly longer than the others but offering an easier start. Indeed, the first hour and a half is pretty relaxing, giving us the chance to warm up slowly while admiring the beautiful view on the valley and on the impressive nearby bluff. The vegetation is present higher here than on the other New Zealander volcanoes. Quantities of small yellow birds are nesting in bushes around, making a joyful racket. Ferns are literally covering knee-high the chaotic track, making it a bit tricky for us! From this side of the mountain, and when we are not watching our steps, we enjoy a stunning view on the Tongariro National Park and its three volcanoes breaking through the heat haze that covers the valley-floor.
We walk around the bluff and discover a totally different point of view: we are now facing the endless deep-blue waters of the Tasman Sea! It’s absolutely stunning! The Taranaki summit seems to be in deep conversation with the powerful iodine breath of the Westerlies. We take some time to admire this breathtaking and powerful duo: the Volcano and the Sea, united by the winds.
We then turn our eyes on the narrow arid path winding its way on the Taranaki’s slope. The hardest section is still to be climbed! Let’s go!
The return of the infernal scree
You certainly remember (well, we certainly do!) the hard time we had on Mt Ngauruhoe (Mt Doom) scree, where everything was crumbling all around us, where taking one step up meant going two steps down. Well… Taranaki is WORSE!! To say the truth, we didn’t believed it at first and we were actually quite presumptuous …
Mariette: “ Bah! (Bugger!) No way we gonna be afraid of that small mountain!”
Besides, a well-made stairway covers the first part of the scree, making the climb quite easy at first. But our confidence was vanishing quickly the more hikers we met on their way down, looking dishevelled and exhausted. Some of them were even taking a nap right there, sprawled in the dust. Most of them tells us “still a long way to go, bro!” in a very encouraging kind of way… Indeed, the staircase ends quickly, giving way to the really unstable steep shitty scree (yeah, shitty!). If it were only that, though, it would have been OK. But the scree seems to go forever and, while we are slowly making our way up, the summit seems to never come nearer, perched on his pedestal, haughty and inaccessible. Would it be making fun of us? This scree is utterly depressing and vampirizes all our energy. Half of our food is eaten on the way up, and half of our water drunk, but we only made it up to a third of the walk!
At last, after more than two hours struggling up the scree, we reach the end of this hell and the beginning of an other, more solid one. We thought we were nearly there, but a guy we met on the road breaks our day-dream and tells us that we still have to go on for an other hour and a half!! We can’t go back now… We gather our strengths and launch an assault on the slope!
Climbing above the clouds
This last part is really, really steep… We put on the 4WD mode. The temperature went down drastically once we left the scree, and severe icy gusts of wind are likely to unbalance us at any moment and make us fall down the cliff. The wind clings to everything, sending vibrations down the straps of our bags, plunging in our hoods, swelling our jackets like a sail, literally covering us from head to toes with fine volcanic dust. If we take a look downhill, we can actually picture it playing with the clouds, pushing them against the Taranaki as if it was trying to warm it up with a big white soft duvet.
Come on, now! The summit is not that far anymore! We overtake the first snow patches. At last, after a ledge, we enter the crater! It’s not very wide, nor impressive. Nothing comparable to the ones we saw before. We decide to take 10 more minutes to climb the last meters to the very top of Mt Taranaki. This last walk is quite gruelling; the rocks are unstable and sharp as razor blades and the cold bites at our hands and faces. But it’s definitely worth it!! We are rewarded by the most magnificent 360° view ever, over the valley, the clouds, the ocean… It is incredible!
Going down the volcano
At the top, while we devour the last of our food, we meet a friendly 70 years old kiwi guy called Bob. He went to a very famous high-standard French uni when he was young, and was still able to speak with us in a very good French. We were quite impressed! We let him finish his picnic and start to make our way down. When we enter the crater again, Bob is already there!!!
Quentin: “What? He teleported or what??”
Later on, we have another shock: we just reached the top of the scree that Bob is already at the bottom of it!!! Feeling slightly humiliated, we swallow back our dignity and begin the succession of falls on the buttocks that characterizes our raids down screes… Luckily, we are having in the same time a deep conversation with Jules and Charlène, two frenchies we just met, so time passes by very quickly and, despite our knees playing castanets, we reach the bottom of the stairs before being aware of it! The clouds around us are playing with the late-afternoon rays of sun, giving a nice surealistic atmosphere to the place while we walk back to our car. When we exit the path, it’s already 6 o’clock, we just walked up1500 vertical meters and we are completely exhausted!! Dirty, sticky, smelly and ravenous, but also thrilled and delighted… and perhaps even a bit proud to have completed this challenge!!
Cheers !
Tintin & Riette
Tips
Free camping around Taranaki :
- From Stratford, drive on the direction of Eltham. Then around 10km after the village, turn on Skeet Rd. Continue until Ahipaipa Rd. A yellow sign will point the direction of the campground.
Free, but donations appreciated - In New Plymouth, you can spend the night for free on Todd Energy Aquatic Center
You can take a shower in the Aquatic Center for 5$
Going up Mt Taranaki :
- 2 starts to the summit track
- From Stratform, take Pembroke Rd in the town center. The track is a little bit longer, but take the same time as it’s less steep.
- From Inglewood, take SH3, then Egmond Rd. The track is steeper.
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