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After my ascent of Ruapehu, the weather remained fine and next day I left Turangi and drove around 200Km down the aptly named "World Forgotten Highway to Stratford near the foot of 2518m Mt Taranaki - the most Southerly and Westerly of North Island's volcanos
The forgotten highway - route 43The forgotten highway passes through areas of virgin forest and at the time included a 50km section of dirt road Giant Rimu pines tower above the forest Farmland on the forgotten highway with hills behindThe sedimentary nature of the land leads to a lot of eroded V shaped valleys like thisWikipedia
Mount Taranaki, or Mount Egmont, is an active but quiescent stratovolcano in the Taranaki region on the west coast of New Zealand's North Island. Although the mountain is more commonly referred to as Taranaki, it has two official names under the alternative names policy of the New Zealand Geographic Board. It is one of the most symmetrical volcanic cones in the world . For many centuries the mountain was called Taranaki by Māori. The Māori word tara means mountain peak, and naki is thought to come from ngaki, meaning "shining", a reference to the snow-clad winter nature of the upper slopes. Captain Cook named it Mount Egmont on 11 January 1770 after John Perceval, 2nd Earl of Egmont, a former First Lord of the Admiralty who had supported his expedition . The last major eruption was in 1655, but volcanic activity was recorded in 1854
I shall adopt the more commonly used Taranaki in this report
Mt Taranaki in the National ParkTaranaki from near StratfordThere is a popular multi-day "Round Taranaki track, and I followed this North from "Jackson's Lookout" - bottom R - to near Tahurangi lodge - where I turned L up the NE ridge Taranaki from Jackson's lookoutA wider view - the NE ridge is the R horizonThe route crosses the Manganui Gorge - a source of considerable avalanche danger in the skiing season: the map shows a cableway crossing above it: this was proposed in 2017 but I don't know if it has actually been built Climbing the rough tephra of the NE ridge: on the descent I found it much easier to descend the snow slopes to its R Nearing the crater edgeLooking N to S, The crater is snow-filled even in Summer. The 2518m summit is up to the R - the 2510m "Shark's Tooth" straight aheadEasy snow slopes lead up to the top. I took an ice axe but not cramponsThe Shark's Tooth from the summitSummit - looking out to seaLooking NW across the North Taranaki BightLooking steeply down the NW faceI descended the same way - Shark's Tooth againCloser view. I had a look at the tooth but decided not to attempt it. The rock was heavily fractured, and I was alone and nobody would miss me if I failed to return The constant melting and refreezing made the snow slopes of the descent extraordinarily granular, and when I practiced slipping and arresting with my axe the icy lumps scratched my wrists and elbows, but it was much quicker than the rocks. Lower down I retraced my route to the car
Manganui gorge in the evening lightLast view of TaranakiFlowers on the Round Taranaki section of the routeAlmost all New Zealand's flowers are white or near white - not because the bees are colourblind
, but because they are pollinated by flies that have very poor vision and just see brightness.
Left - Kapoti - an aromatic umbellifer right - New Zealand EyebrightLeft - Bog Daisy Right -Unidentified :there are not many native six petalled flowers in NZWest Coast - miscellaneous photos New Zealand is awash with superb scenery. Every corner you turn you want to get out the camera and capture some of it. These are just pics - first of the Rangitkei river North of Wellington and then of mainly coastal scenery up the West coast.
The Rangitkei river is one of the longest in New zealandThere are several "old" river banks in this photoSedimentary cliffs above the riverI headed North up the W coast stopping a night at RaglanMore cliffs and tree fernsI stopped for a walk in Pirongia forest Park. - the section by the coast and climbed towards Mt Karoi. The problem with the forests is that they are quite impenetrable - you can only walk on tracks cut through themRaglan harbour from the lookout in the forestLeft - More tree ferns Right - A different sort of fernFrom the start of the walk, looking down the coast to Albatross pointFrom near the same point, view down to the seaA pohutukawa in full flowerHeronGulls and a solitary tern on the beachOystercatchers at Kawhai beachanother beach