Hike to Mount Taranaki & Paritutu Rock

This morning we went over to the i site to ask about hiking to Mount Taranaki. They recommended a 16km hike to the Pouakai Tarns pools where you can get a beautiful view of the Mountain and perfect reflection on the lake. They showed us the live camera up by the mountain and it looked pretty clear. It was sunny outside.

We drove about half an hour to the carpark where we start the walk. Unfortunately it started to rain a little bit when we started the walk. But we were hoping if may clear up by the time we reached the top. We walked on Broadwalk up lots of steps in the forest. We were walking up steps for about 2 hours. It was beginning to get very muddy, wet and icy. It was never ending these steps. We decided to stop at Pouakai Hut to have our lunch and warm up a bit by the fire. We were all very wet. Next we walked to the Pouakai Tarns. More steps. It was getting very wet and muddy. After about 15 minutes we made it to the Mirror reflection lake. We were all disappointed we couldn't see a thing. Not even Mount Taranaki at all. It was completely covered in cloud and it was still raining. We decided to head back straight away. It was a slow wet climb back down. Legs were aching and we were all very wet. It took us about 5 hours in total.

After this Conny and Ashleigh wanted to climb Paritutu rock as the weather was sunny and it supposed to be raining tomorrow on our last day here. I agreed but struggled a bit as there more steps to climb. Shortly after, the climb got more demanding and I needed both hands free to get myself up the side of ​Paritutu Rock. I had to scramble up the steep rock. There is a chain along side I could hold on to at times. When we made it up to the top the sun was setting and we had lovely views over New Plymouth City, Mount Taranaki in the distance but still mainly covered in cloud, back beach and the severn Sugar loaf islands. It was a great view from the top. Definitely worth the climb. It was only 15 minutes to the top of the rock but steep.Read more