Mount Taranaki Climb

The West Cape of New Zealand is known as a route off the beaten path for tourists. It encompasses a string of small surf towns around the coast anchored by the city of New Plymouth. Dominating the view from every point of the coastal drive is the snow capped peak of Mount Taranaki, the youngest of a string of volcanoes that goes out into the sea. The instant I saw it towering over the town I knew that I had to climb it.
Walter very quickly decided that he had better things to do (reading his book on the beach) than climbing a mountain. When I inquired about the trail conditions on the summit climb the park warden warned me that the Summit was unobtainable without Crampons and an Ice Pick. Despite her warning myself and a few Germans, Brits, and Aussie students decided to attempt the summit and just turn back if it was impassable.
The walk begins with a steep gravel fire road to a mountain cabin, this part of the trail is aptly named "The Puffer." From there the trail turned into a steep scree slope of volcanic scoria. I consider myself an experienced hiker and I can safely say that I have never encountered a more difficult section of trail than this. One of my Aussie climbing companions described it quite accurately as a Vertical Beach. After about 90 minutes of rock scrambling we reached the snowfields by the summit. We were lucky and the snow was soft enough that we could summit without tools, screw you Park Ranger. From the top you can see the perfect radial borders of Egmont National Park. The summit was breathtaking and terrifying at the same time as one wrong step could leave you sliding uncontrollably down one of the numerous snowy slopes.
On the way down the work we put into climbing the scree slope was well worth it. By jumping from foot to foot you could essentially skate down the side of the mountain (picture a giant sand dune.) When I finally reached the bottom I collapsed into the car awaiting our campsite for the night.

Pictures!