6-7th
March 2010
Leader: Tony
Gibson
Saturday
morning 3 cars left Papakura for the long drive to
Taranaki. A week before the long range forecast
had a big anti-cyclone sitting over Taranaki with fine
settled weather predicted. Since then a tropical
cyclone had come down the East coast and the weather had
the potential to be a problem.
All
twelve of us arrived at the North Egmont visitors centre
within a few minutes of each other, including Wade who
was joining us after dropping his children off in New
Plymouth. Our party of twelve climbed past the Camphouse
and up the Razor-back heading for Tahurangi Lodge. Some
carried day packs with sleeping bags attached, while
others had full packs with their day packs inside.
We met several groups coming down who said that the
weather was fairly miserable up above and the wind too
strong for them to get up to the summit.
Tahurangi Lodge
has electric lighting, hot plates, a fridge and eating
utensils, and is very comfortable. Several
families, some with small babies and toddlers were in
the other bunkroom. We soon found out why Allan
was carrying such a large pack when he took out a cake
and bottle of wine so we could help him celebrate his
birthday. The wind was starting to buffet the hut
and Sundays mountain forecast was for strong winds
reducing to 50 knots at 2,000 metres.
Sunday morning
we were up early and ready to go by 7am. The winds
were still strong and after a talk on questions of
safety, and agreement that everyone would be back at the
lodge by 1pm Tony led off up the mountain. Richard
took up the “tail-end-Charlie” position and took
responsibility for making sure that if people turned
back they would do so with a buddy.
We headed up
the valley behind the lodge and up the wooden steps, the
stairway to heaven. Above the steps a reasonable
scoria track took us up to drinking rock. This took us
about an hour. At this stage Richard said to half
the party, “You six are the summiteers”. The next
45 minutes were the most difficult. It involved a
steep section with a thin layer of scoria on top.
The
poled route then sidled up the scoria slopes to the
Lizard, a prominent rocky ridge which leads up to the
crater entrance. The winds had started to die down
and from the Lizard we had expansive views from Ruapehu
around to New Plymouth. The ridges of the Pouakai
Range stood out in sharp relief in the morning light.
We
dropped into the crater and crossed the ice to the final
scoria slope up to the summit, which at 2518m is the 2nd
highest mountain in the North Island. In keeping
with the digital age the cameras and phones were working
hard. Wade stood on top waving to his mother in
New Plymouth. On the way back down we walked
around the rocks on the crater rim to get a good view of
Syme hut on Fanthams peak, and a view around the Shark’s
Tooth to the Stratford Mountain House.
As we
made our way down to re-group at Tahurangi Lodge we met
more people heading up on what was now a fine breezy
afternoon. If the weather had broken a few hours
earlier more of our party would have made it to the top.
While not reaching the summit, would have been
disappointing, just being up on the mountain in that
magnificent scenery was very rewarding.
Thanks again to
Richard for his leadership role.
Tony Gibson
