Climbing the Mountain

So what did you do last Saturday morning? I didn't do a whole lot, just climbed a mountain. All the way to the top, approximately 8,600 feet! It only took 4 hours :)

My brother arrived in New Zealand about a week and a half ago for a three week visit, so last Saturday we woke up bright and early at 4am (more early than bright haha) and joined a couple of the locals in climbing Mt. Taranaki.

There wasn't this much snow on it, I took this not long after I arrived
during the winter, but it is a good shot of what I climbed!

It was still dark when we got there, so the mountain was silhouetted against a star-filled night sky. The first hour was pretty easy, started out with a gravel road, and then a paved road up to an excellent look-out just in time for a beautiful sunrise (the last section before the look-out is called "the puffer" since by the time you get to the top you are ready to take a break). It was clear so we could see clusters of light that were New Plymouth, Egmont Village, and other surrounding townships.

This one so doesn't look real but promise it is!

The next bit was not too much more of a challenge. We followed a dirt path further up the side of the mountain through a grassy/rocky area until we got to a set of stairs, about 500 steps. The scenery helped distract from the fact that my legs were starting to burn a bit :)

Just as we reached the top of the stairs and I was thinking that mountain climbing wasn't so bad, we got to the next bit which is called "the scurrier." We had started climbing at 6am, it was now about 7:40am. We would not reach the end of the scurrier until about 9:15am. I was ready to be past it long before then, if I may be honest. It was a mixture of loose gravelly rocks and dirt. As you looked up it did not appear to be terribly steep, but I quickly discovered that for every two steps forward I took, I would slide back down at least one, sometimes three. It was most definitely a lesson in perseverance, and you quickly found out how fit you are or are not.

Next up was "the lizard," named for the fact that you couldn't go straight up since it was just rocks on the side of the mountain, so you had to pick your way back and forth to find hand and footholds. It was about that point that I decided I would put off looking down for awhile. I am not terribly afraid of heights, but somehow knowing that I was climbing up some rocks, which were not straight up, but were certainly far from flat, was a little unnerving when I realized just how far we had climbed.

Once we reached the top of the rocks, we just had to cross the crater (Mt. Taranaki is an inactive volcano), and climb one more brief section before the top.

The crater was full of ice and snow, but by that point we had been working hard enough you hardly noticed the cold unless a gust of wind came up. Once we reached the top, we had lunch, at 10am, but it felt overdue after 4 hours of climbing. There were clouds down below that had formed since we began our climb, so we could not see town or the rest of the mountain range or surrounding area, but it was a bit magical to feel like we were were in our own little windy paradise on top of the world. The clouds were gorgeous in their own way, and it was somewhat awe-inspiring to see other mountain ranges across the island that I have heard of but have not yet made it to.

Mt. Ruapehu in the distance

The very top (and yes I went up there)!!

Of all the ones we took, this was the best..... :)

The climb down was much easier, and quick than going up, naturally, it only took about 2 and a half hours. When going down "the scurrier" we pretty much just ran down it, or slid down on it, occasionally not on my feet if you were me. About two thirds of the way down we were walking through the clouds which had prevented us from seeing all the way down, which was a slightly odd thing as we knew we were still high up but could not see more than a few yards around where we were walking.
I could keep attempting to describe it, but I think I will let you look at the pictures again instead because they tell the story a bit better :)