After I finished Te Araroa I headed over the Marlborough Straits and back to the North Island. I visited my friend Toni who lives in the Taranaki area of New Zealand.
I had timed my trip to coincide with the Mount Taranaki open climb. We gort up in the middle of the night to get to the start at 5am only to be told it was called off because of strong winds - they can blow you right off the mountain. There was a possibility of doing it the next day but with strong winds still forecast it was still deemed to be too risky and the whole event was called off...
Instead I opted to do the Pouakai Circuit - it could be done as a day walk but it was nice to take it easy and stay at Pouakai Hut overnight. This is a nice serviced hut although it does have a mouse and part of my backpack got nibbled - the only time in any of the huts!
When I arrived back at the visitors centre it was the end of my New Zealand Tramping - I had been in the country nearly 4 months and had tramped on 88 of those days - I passed the 1500 km (935 mile) mark on the Pouakai circuit - an average of 17km or 10.5 miles a day. As you can see it took a toll on the boots but was brilliant for the waistline - 10kg lost!
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| Mount Taranaki |
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| No climb but an amazing sunrise! |
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| And still no climb - can you believe it! |
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| My Kiwi friend Toni! |
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| Sunset on Pouakai Circuit |
When I arrived back at the visitors centre it was the end of my New Zealand Tramping - I had been in the country nearly 4 months and had tramped on 88 of those days - I passed the 1500 km (935 mile) mark on the Pouakai circuit - an average of 17km or 10.5 miles a day. As you can see it took a toll on the boots but was brilliant for the waistline - 10kg lost!
