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Home » Destinations » New Zealand » Climbing Mount Taranaki in photos
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Climbing Mount Taranaki in photos

Last updated: December 24, 2017. Written by Laurence Norah - 25 Comments

Mount Taranaki is the second highest mountain on New Zealand’s north island, at 2517m (around 8500ft for you folks on the imperial system).

The climb up it is a gruelling 17km hike, and this is generally regarded as being one of the toughest day hikes you can do on the north island.

Mount Taranaki

With this knowledge in our minds, we decided to give it a go. The day we chose was absolutely perfect, with just a gentle breeze to accompany us, and no cloud forecast.

The hike started at the 900 metre mark, and from there on in it was all uphill, first through lush forest, then scrubland, before the really hard part – a tough slog up an insanely steep scree field and a scramble up the lava flow near the top.

Here are a series of photos to give you an idea of what this walk is like. Check out the end of the post for a bit more information on the walk, and a video of me making a tit out of myself on the way back down the aforementioned scree slope…

Taranaki Trail Begins

 The path up. At around 1000m altitude here, only 1500 metres to go!

First hut - where the going starts to get tough

The end of the easy path. The trail continues up to the right of the hut.

Looking out across New Zealand

 Looking back from the hut to the Tongariro National Park, 180km away.The trail becomes tougher

Onwards and upwards. Still relatively easy compared to what is coming..

IMG_8337

 The end of the creek, the path winds round these boulders…Staircase up Mount Taranaki

 A staircase! Fairly steep too. Well, the whole thing is pretty steep if I’m honest..Scree slope up Taranaki

The end of the staircase. It’s a crazy scramble up a scree field from here on in. Vertigo sufferers need not apply.Start of the Lizard on Taranaki

End of the scree and the start of the “Lizard”, a lava flow up the side of the mountain to the crater. Also quite a scramble. Oh yes, and some snow.

Climbing Mount Taranaki in photos

View back across the scree scramble from the start of the Lizard. The views were pretty awesome.

Entering the Taranaki Crater

Nearly the top! The crater is snow filled year round and for most of the year requires ice axes and crampons. We didn’t have these and didn’t need them.

Snowy mountain and clouds

On the way up to the final summit from the crater. Actually almost there now.

People on the summit

The top! And we were not alone – this walk is nowhere near as busy as some, but there are a few people on the trail when the weather is this good.

Spiral Rocks

There was some art at the top.

Cloudy mountain top

The view from the top with the clouds swirling around was lovely. The clouds in the far background are across the Tongariro National Park, 180km away.

Laurence on the summit of Taranaki

And the inevitable picture of me at the top. Splendid stuff!

For more information on this walk, the excellent Department of Conservation centre at the start of the walk has pretty much everything you need to know. There is also a sign in and sign out book which is essential to fill in even for the day hikes – the weather here changes incredibly quickly and having someone know you are still on the mountain is a comfort. It is a serious mountain to hike – over sixty people have died on its slopes – so every precaution should be taken.

For more information on how to prepare for a day hike, check out my day hikes – what you need to know post. Otherwise, I can highly recommend this walk if you want a slightly less crowded volcano climb compared to say the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, or are just looking for a really awesome uphill stroll. And now.. here’s that video I mentioned:

video573f3185ce8125255B325255D

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, why not take a look at some of the other posts I’ve done featuring the Taranaki region, including two fabulous road trips in the area: the Surf Coast Highway, and the Lost World Highway.

 

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There are 25 comments on this post

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  1. Dan says

    9th January 2018 at 11:10 pm

    Hi Laurence, great photo and story!

    I plan to hike Taranaki also later in this month, may I know how long was the hike?
    Thanks 🙂

    Reply
    • Laurence Norah says

      9th January 2018 at 11:51 pm

      Hi Dan!

      Thanks very much 🙂 It was an awesome day, but quite a tough hike for sure. I’d say it was around 5 hours up, and then 2 – 3 hours down. Definitely a full day of hiking.

      Have an awesome walk!

      Reply
  2. Lexa Harpell says

    9th January 2018 at 6:02 am

    Fabulous images of NZ’s stunning scenery, quite a trek to the summit! Oh the burn on the thighs! Next time in Aust, try the summit of Cradle Mountain! 🙂

    Reply
    • Laurence Norah says

      9th January 2018 at 10:38 am

      Thanks Lexa! I did actually climb Cradle Mountain, I spent a month on Tasmania in the summer and had a gorgeous day for it 🙂 Definitely one of my favourite walks in Australia!

      Reply
  3. Laurence Norah says

    20th April 2012 at 9:12 pm

    lol, a fair point. It was a tongue in cheek remark.. as the going got a lot tougher at that point! Still, great walk, with excellent views all over the place 😀 Hope you enjoyed it!

    Reply
  4. Anja says

    20th April 2012 at 9:01 pm

    I don’t know how you can write “The end of the easy path” under photo 3!? I didn’t find it easy when I was there 1 week ago; except of the very first minute when I walked to the lookout platform beside the parking place 😀

    After walking till Tahurangi Lodge I can only say “Respect”!

    Reply
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Laurence and Jessica Norah

Hi there! We're Laurence and Jessica Norah. We've been running this site since 2010 as full time professional travel bloggers. We visit all the places we write about personally, and all our content is based on our own first hand travel experiences. We also take all the photos you see on our sites. So grab a drink, dive in, and read on! You can also find out more about us here. Comic included.
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