ChrisJenTravel.com – Honeymoon Trek

After our time underground we were anxious to get back to the beach. We drove next to Mount Plymouth, the base town for the Taranaki region, known for terrific surf as well as Mt. Taranaki, which looms over the whole area. The mountain, actually a dormant volcano, has been compared to Mt. Fuji in Japan for its striking conic appearance and is visible from all around the surrounding land and sea. In the summer it is a challenging but very easily accomplished one-day climb so we thought we’d give it a try while in the area. We checked with a local climbing shop and found out a very large group climb was planned for the next day so we would have to set out early to even get a parking spot nearby. After finding another cozy cabin in a holiday park and checking the surf, which was nonexistent, we made plans to get up early the next morning and begin our ascent. But, to make a short story even shorter, we packed all our gear and food, prepared for the climb, went to bed early, woke up at 5am and packed our ancient rental car, only to discover it wouldn’t start. With no light and sleep in our eyes, it was hopeless to try to get it fixed so we went back to bed. Remarkably, 3 hours later I jiggled the battery connection and the car started immediately. With another long hike of the Tongariro Crossing already planned for the next day, we chalked our luck up to a good omen and decided to scrap the Taranaki climb altogether to save our energy.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 6th, 2007 at 5:55 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.