Over the clouds, Mt Egmont.
Last Saturday, Juanx, my friend that I was traveling with, returned to Auckland to leave New Zealand 4 days later. I picked up him at the airport and we drove to New Plymouth. I had been there but I hadn’t reached the summit of the Mt Egmont so that was the reason that we returned.
Mt Egmont is 2518 mt over the sea, what is not a lot comparing other mountains, however it has one of the borders on the sea so you have to start at almost the sea level. Māori legend says that Taranaki (Mt Egmont) previously lived with the Tongariro, Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu mountains of the central North Island but fled to its current location after a battle with Tongariro.
The route that we took it was quite hard to hike it but after 5 hours we reached the summit. On the way up we crossed only a few people and a man who was 83 years old. He told us that for the past three years he had been saying this is going to be my last year, however I don’t think he’ll not come on 2011. Believe me it was not an easy hike and being 83 years old and reach the summit it was a big endeavor! The 360 view from the summit and the snow in the valley were awesome.
On the way to Auckland we stopped at three sisters, a rock formation recommended by a collage. It is on the cost and there are some caves and a beautiful three rocks formation. Tide was low and I gave a second possibility to the ocean caves, this time everything was fine and we enjoyed a black sand beach.
We returned to Auckland on Monday, met Clovis and some friends from UK, and we all had some drinks at ponsonby social club. Later for dinner we cooked corns that we bought on a small town and the day after Juanx took his plane to Buenos Aires (Feli ya no lo tenes que extrañar mas y en el futuro viajaremos de a 4:).
It was really easy traveled with Juanx and we got very well. It seams yesterday when we started traveling, however time flew, and there is lot coming forward!
