Mount Taranaki - Pouakei Crossing

So my dear ones...

I spent the last few days in New Plymouth, a city on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand, and apart from Mount Taranaki, also known as Mount Egmont, it is quite unspectacular.

This is the most perfectly shaped volcanic cone in New Zealand and is a relatively young volcano. The stratovolcano is not extinct but only sleeping, which in my opinion makes it even more interesting. The last eruption was in 1854, and there have been 5 major eruptions in addition to the lava flows.

The weather was quite bad in the first few days here in New Plymouth, so I stayed there longer to do a hike in Egmont National Park.

The day before, I arranged for a shuttle to take me to the mountain.

As always, I didn't sleep enough before this hike, and after only 4 hours of sleep, my alarm went off.

I was totally unmotivated and was considering staying in bed and sleeping more.

However, I knew that today was the only day when the weather was suitable for this hike.

My motivation was this narrow beam of light in the sky and the following pictures...

So I packed my things and left the hostel to be picked up by the shuttle.

After a 30-minute drive, we arrived at the base of the mountain, and we (my two hiking buddies from Germany and France) started the walk.

Already at the first turn, we accidentally took the wrong path that leads to the currently closed path, but since we had already gained some elevation, we decided to continue walking and hoped that we would still be able to do the walk.

Although we faced some challenges and barriers, it was still possible to walk the path.

What I usually like about hiking is the feeling of standing on top of the mountain and thinking "yeah, it was worth it," and I missed that feeling on this crossing.

We first climbed Mount Taranaki and then descended into the valley and then climbed another mountain.

The nature was very beautiful, but I didn't find the route itself very enjoyable. I would have preferred to climb the mountain only once, but well, I completed the 25 km and it was still a nice day.

...next time I'll know better.

Here are some pictures....