Woha, we came back to Taranki for the summit. Mary booked an awesome holiday home in Waitara and we drove up Taranaki on a Saturday morning. It was a great group of seven people that got together and we took the rest of the day to get settled, shop some food and planed the next day a little.
On Sunday morning we got up bright dark and early and hit the road at 6 am. It took about 45 min to get into the park, and as last time we started our trip at the visitor center in North Egmont. But this time it went straight up. The DOC reckons the Taranaki Summit track take 5-6 hrs up and 3-4 hrs back down. Which was pretty accurate for us, we finished in 9,5 hrs.
The hike is one of the most challenging I ever did, but it is phenomenal! First it goes through NZ bush but you’ll leave the tree line very quickly. Then it goes up on a steep and sketchy concert path, that looks like it could be fun with a 4 wheel drive. After that it continues with stair after stair and the longest stretch in the end changes regularly from rocks and boulders to climb over to gravel and scree. The boulders are as enjoyable as challenging, but the gravel is frustrating and exhausting. At last going up. Going down it is quite fun, as you can see in Scotts video. And then after another climb over rocks, you hit the snow and cloud filled crater, cross it to get to the last steep scree incline to the summit. We were lucky with the weather, and had a mostly clear day. Just on the Summit was on big cloud lingering around soiling us with a wonderful view of a white wall of mist.
