Mt. Taranaki

After work on Friday we drove to Stratford-- a 6 hour drive (normally 4 hours; traffic and a nice long dinner at cafe slowed us down a bit). On Saturday we started our hike up Mt. Taranaki with the objective to climb as high as we could.

Getting to the top is very do-able (for most). Mt. Taranaki is probably the steepest mountain I've ever been on. When trails in New Zealand encounter a steep area, they goes straight up the hill instead of "switchbacking" (going back and forth) up the mountain. Along with the steep slope of the trail, loose rock (called "scree") near the top of Taranaki made it really difficult to walk up and down. Part of the mountain was so steep that steps going straight up were installed-- there must have been 500 steps in a row to walk up-- with no hand rail. Walking down I had to work hard to quell hysterics and force myself to only look one step ahead of me. I really had no idea that I was afraid of heights until I moved to New Zealand.

Bryce could have made it to the top, but I had to make us stop because climbing on the scree was so difficult. I waited at a pretty (and steep) vantage point to watch a glider and the views for about 40 minutes, while Bryce climbed even higher. It was a gorgeous day.

Mt. Taranaki is even beautiful when viewed up close-- really close.

Near the base of the mountain. Some parts of NZ are so gorgeous I spontaneously start humming the Jurassic Park theme song.

Hiking in NZ is wonderful-- no wild animals to be scared of! There are wild boars I suppose, but it's hard to wrap my mind around the fact that there's wild pigs out there.

You can easily see in this picture where the boundary for the park lies. In the distance Mt. Ruapehu (where we ski) can be seen.