Days 65,66,67 — Mt.Taranaki
We packed our tramping packs again and climbed Mt.Taranaki. It’s an active and most beautiful vulcano, which erupts about every 350 years and it has been 360 since the last eruption. So, we took our chances and went.
The first day was crazy! We started after lunch and had about 5–6 hours of hiking in front of us. The first hour or two were right up with stairs. Easy enough, though we couldn’t see much as it was foggy. But the lady in the visitor centre said that the day after would be beautiful. That’s a carrot! Then on our map it said “cliffs”. Cliffs means the well formed tramping path stops and there are boulders to climb over. Huge boulders.
Alright, we transformed into a family of mountain goats and one step at the time we made it over those. That took quite some time and after a calculation of when the sun will set and how much hiking we have in front of us, Mick and me realised we will probably not make it before nightfall. We will catch some dark before we will arrive in our first destination — Holly Hut. Nightfall in the mountains means it becomes pitch black around you with nothing to be able to see.
The question was to return, over the boulders again?, or just keep walking. We kept walking. We had headlamps, we had hiked before and we were confident that we can do it. We were alert in every way and focussed on time, steps (did not want to sprain an ankle right there) and of course on Jamie and Miya. I took Miya on my hand and Jamie walked with Mick. With lots of fog around us we kept walking. We made short breaks to eat and kept walking. By about one hour before the sun will set, Miya started complaining about her pack. It has become too heavy. Ohhh my, by now we still had two hours to walk in the tempo we did. We had to go faster! Mick then took Miya’s backpack and suddenly we were moving. And luckily the path also had become easier. We walked over a ridge with straight wooden parts. We were elevated and hope came up, we might make it after all?! But not so lucky it started to rain. Not drizzly rain, no real heavy rain.
Immediately we were soaked. Shoes, socks, pants everything. Raindrops run down by back. But we had to keep going! Then we came to a junction with a sign “5 min to Holly Hut”. Hooray! Soon, we will be there! And it was still a little bit of light left, but not much, so we hurried down. Our brochure described the last part as “just crossing a river, which might become to difficult to cross after heavy rainfall”. Luckily there hasn’t been rainfall enough yet and there was no water in the riverbed, just stones. Mini boulders so to speak. And here we were, dripping wet in the still pouring rain and the path ended at the river bed. The next Minute it was dark. Pitch black. The trees were suddenly one big blob of black. Everything was just one big blob of black. No moon. Nothing.
The question was: Where is the hut? Where is the path? Which direction to go? Ohhhh, dang shit!!! We couldn’t see a thing. The kids began to panic. There was no path! Mick began to scream “HELP” “HELLO”. The hut was so close! We even heard voices. Where is that freaking HUT??? We started to unpack the headlamps, parked the kids in the middle and told them to wait and not to panic! We will find that path! Mick looked around on one side of the river and I crossed and looked on the other side. But it looked too steep that anything would be there. Walls right up. Where is that path? Any footprints? It must be here! The sign said “5 MINUTES”. And the rain still pounding on us. Streams of light from the headlamps crossing furiously around the little valley. The voices of the kids extremely scared… But I did not feel panicking. I just knew we would find it. It is just a matter of time…
Then Mick encouraged me to look more up and suddenly I could see the path. Thanks universe! Thanks mountain-gods! Hidden between stones and steep up it went — the path! 3 Minutes later and we stormed like stormtroopers into the hut. We were passed by three hikers on our way and those three were right there, waiting for us, clapping and cheering! We made it! One of the ladies gave each of us candy. My best bonbon I ever had. At the hut was also a group of highschoolers with their teachers. They had to hike for more than 6 hours a day for two days as part of their PE exam. The teachers looked at us as if we were coming from the moon — arriving in the middle of the night with two kids wet from top to toe in a hut in the middle of Egmont national park.
But nevertheless we felt great! We peeled out of the wet clothes, took on dry ones and were joining the group of three. A brother and sister from France and Jannik from Germany. All in the beginning of their twenties. Young and sweet adventurous people. We would follow each other for the next two days. We had dinner and the seven of us ended up playing one round of UNO next to the fireplace in Holly Hut. Safe and sound. Miya won that round and everyone was happy.
The next two days were rather unspectacular compared to the first one. The fog disappeared and we had a beautiful afternoon and sunset over Mt.Taranaki on the second day. Due to the heavy rain the path was muddy and puddles all over, but that became a game for us. Next puddle — next challenge. How to pass without stepping into the mud? It was quite fun. The second night we slept at Pouakai Hut and again with our three friends. The last day we went down and got picked up from the Mountain Shuttle. And that was that! Another amazing hiking trip and the moral of the story is: Next time just start 6–7 minutes earlier!
