Mount Taranaki

I spent the morning today at Mount Taranaki in Egmont National Park. The mountain dominates the park and can be seen for miles around (if the weather is clear). It is a beautiful mountain and had a generous fresh snowfall. I think that Taranaki is the most attractive mountain on the North Island that I can pronounce. That doesn’t mean that Mt. Ruapehu or Mt. Ngauruhoe aren’t attractive, I just can’t pronounce them so I will never be dropping them into a conversation. It’s not just me that has trouble with Maori pronunciations. I’ve noticed that when I’m using my iPhone to navigate while I drive, sometimes Siri just sort of mumbles a word hoping that I don’t notice she has no clue about the actual pronunciation.

There were some nice hiking trails at Taranaki. I did the hike to Wilkies Pools and to Dawson Falls. I also did a nice time lapse of the Mountain with clouds flowing around it.

I then headed North along the coast. I was hoping to be able to fly the DJI Inspire through some large rocks called The Three Sisters, but the tide was coming in, and you have to hike around a point to get to the rocks. It looked like it might be possible to make it out there, but I probably wouldn’t have been able to beat the tide back.


Mount Taranaki from the path on the way up to Wilkies Pools.


This is “Wilkies Pools” on Mount Taranaki.


The trail to Wilkies Pools had some interesting red barked trees draped with moss.


Here’s my daily dose of Fern.


This is Dawson Falls.


This is Mount Taranaki from the location I filmed my time lapse. It’s strange to see a snow capped mountain that is not surrounded by pines and firs.