Taranaki
This weekend, the Queen's birthday long weekend, we decided to travel a bit further than typical to see Mt Taranaki on the West Coast of the North Island. It's about 4.5 hours drive from Auckland, but it was well worth it.
We left on the Saturday morning, and stopped at Elephant Rock (officially the Three Sisters). Maybe you can see where it gets it's name from:
Elephant Rock
The sand here was nearly pure black, even more so than Piha and Karekare. We made it just in time to leave before the tide got much above knee level.
Around the corner from Elephant Rock
Arriving in New Plymoth, we had a brief look around town before heading to the camp site at North Egmont (at the base of Mt Taranaki). We were treated to some stunning weather and captured the sunset.
Mt Taranaki at dusk
After the sun went down, the temperatures dropped. It must've been one of the coldest (feeling) nights we've had so far. It didn't stop Alex from testing out some night time photography though.
Mt Taranaki at night
On the Sunday, we left our comfort zone a bit on a grueling seven hour tramp to Holly Hut and back. The track took part way up the mountain, and then skirted around from the northern to the western face. The morning was nice walking. The clouds picked up, but we were treated to a few sights of the peak. After reaching the hut around lunch, the afternoon of walking was hard as drizzle followed us all the way back. The hike was intended to be about three hours, but I'd misinterpreted a lot of the information. I think we were both glad (in hindsight) to have done it though.
We're out of the woods
Some walls
Before
After
The finish line
After the hike we headed back into New Plymoth for some Thai food. We set up camp at a freedom camping site in a car park at a park, and had a well earned sleep.
Monday we traveled back to Auckland. We stopped at White Cliffs for a look around, and then in Hamilton to pick up some tires for on of Alex's work mates.
Stop off at White Cliffs
Near White Cliffs
James