We arrived from the South – North island ferry to a cloudy car park at the base of Mt. Taranaki to camp for the duration of our stay in Egmont National park. This is another example of the conflict between Maori names (Taranaki) and the European name (Egmont).
By morning, we were sitting above the clouds, with the conical peak of Mt. Taranki looming above us in bright sunshine. As we had such great weather, we set off early to maximise the mountain time before our arranged pick up at the other end of the Pouaki Crossing hiking route.
The volcano views were stunning and ever changing as we traversed around the northern flank of the mountain. We detoured off route to the Bells Falls for lunch – another spectacular view of a waterfall, cascading down a boulder filled river, with naked hippies taking a swim in the cold waters.
We had spotted an interesting mountain on the map here, Mt. Henry was 55mins walk off our route. The opportunity was too good to pass up! So we scrambled our way up the steep incline (in only 40 mins, proof of our mountain fitness gained over 2 months of adventure!) Once there, the views of Taranaki, and Ruhapeu ( in Tongariro National park, that we visited in October) were awesome.
Also from here we could see the start point of our walk. It turned out it was only an extra 30 mins (estimated) between the walk west to our pick up point, to do the whole (recommended 2 day hike) Pouaki Circuit by making our own way back to the van. As this was the last big tramping day of the trip, we went for it! Crossing many more rivers and dry valleys, topping up and sterilising a couple of extra litres of water, we eventually made it back! Eddie had been great all day, accepting some long backpack stints inbetween wiggle sessions. Total Hike, 28.6km, 10hrs 45mins, 1485m ascent, 2 tired Henrys.
Parenting Responsibly 