Mon 2nd March: Mt Taranaki and Back to National Park

I woke up at 7am to see if I could get some dawn shots of Taranaki but the place was covered by a heavy fog. This appeared to end any hope I had of seeing the volcanoe. I wasn't hanging about in Stratford. I was getting an early bus to National Park in the hope of decent weather and doing the Tongariro crossing at the second attempt.

I got the bus at 8.50am. Five miles out of town the fog cleared. I looked back and there was Taranaki standing clear under blue skies. As it was so unexpected the sight of this huge volcanoe almost took my breath away. It was beautiful, a classic volcanic cone standing high above the surrounding plain. For the next 10 mins while it remained in sight I tried to get as many photos as I could in the hope that one or two would be decent. I cursed the driver who was rattling along at 40-50mph bumping me about as I tried to keep the camera steady.

We had to change buses at Whanganui and this meant a stopover for 90 mins. The staff at the bus station allowed me to drop my rucksack in an office so I could have a look around town. It was a lovely town. A very picturesque little place on this sunny morning. A lot of the buildings and shopfronts dated from early in the last century and have been mantained in good condition which gave the town centre a lot of character. The break went by very fast and, sooner than I would have liked, I had to leave Whanganui.

I'm looking forward to doing the Tongariro crossing tomorow. Its one of the top one-day hikes to do in New Zealand. You cover some 20km following which climb up and take you through some spectacular volcanic mountains. The sights are supposed to be dramatic. For the last week I've been checking thweather forecasts and tomorrow the weather is supposed to be fine. When we arrived over in National Park the weather was a lot better than the last time I had been there but cloud still covered the tops of the mountains. The latest forecast suggests tomorrow will be fine, as has been predicted. People in the hostel who did the trek this morning said it was great and while I'm hopeful of fine weather tomorrow I'm not expecting it. By the time the sun goes down this evening there are heavy clouds on the mountains. The signs aren't good.