Preparation
Mount Taranaki is one of the most perfectly shaped volcanos on this planet and located on the North Island of New Zealand. In this blog entry we explain how to get there, how to prepare and how to get the perfect shot.
We strongly suggest to prepare yourself properly before the hike up to Mount Taranaki. Even if it might not be one of the most dangerous hikes, it can still take you up to 6 hours for a roundtrip (at the same day). However, we decided to walk up to the Pouakai Hut for an overnight stay as we wanted to take some pictures during the sunrise next day. From this hut it only takes you about 15-20mim to reach the reflective tarns (small lake in front of the volcano).
You’ll only walk stairs for about 3 hours (one way). Take enough water with you and wear some good shoes. Depending on the weather conditions the path it can be very muddy.
We also highly suggest to check the weather forecast. As mentioned above, the path can be very muddy and slippy. During our travel in New Zealand we usually used the local weather forecast from MetService. This service was from our point of view the most accurate one.
Pouakai Hut
If you plan an overnight stay in the Hut, you might want to take some additional gear with you (i.e. sleeping bags as there are only plain mattress up there and it can become really cold during the night). The Pouakai Hut is located about 10-15min away from the reflective tarn. A small lake in front of the volcano.
There are about 16 places to sleep up there but generally there’s no real infrastructure at all. There’s a small kitchen, a fireplace (wood is stored in a shack behind the hut) and two pit toilets … yeah, that’s basically it. Don’t expect too much of comfort up there.
Be there early as in our case the sleeping places in the hut were occupied around 2pm already. You’ll also need a “Service Hut” ticket which can be bought in New Plymouth at Kathmandu Store for about NZD 15.- per person (adult). Youth (11 – 17 years) are NZD 7.50 per person.
How to get there?
The track begins at the end of Mangorei Road in New Plymouth. There’s limited car parking available on the road side but also quite a few parking lots for cars, camper vans and even mobile homes. As far as we know, it’s also allowed to park overnight.
From the parking lot you can start the trail right away. Just walk into the direction of the mountain until you’ll enter after a few minutes a smaller path which will lead (after a few hours of hiking) up to the Pouakai Hut.
The «Mangorei Track»
Once you parked the car walk up the street until the path starts through a beautiful forest. At the beginning it’s still quite flat until you reach the point from the stairs. Well and then – you have the pleasure to walk stairs for about 2.5 – 3 hours (depending on your fitness level).
At the beginning, the path is still quite easy to walk as you can see here:
Later you’ll have the “pleasure” to stark walking up the stairs – for hours! Sometimes we did had the feeling it will last forever. One step after each other we were climbing up the hill.
Reflective tarns at Mount Taranaki
Once you reached the Pouakai Hut you can walk up the small path behind the hut for about 10 minutes. You’ll then reach the highest point of this hike with an amazing view on Mount Taranaki. From there you can also see the reflective tarn (small lake). You simply need to take the path to your left down to the tarns. This will take you about 5-10min.
If you want to get a picture of you in front of Mount Taranaki with the reflection in the tarn, the weather conditions needs to be PERFECT! So whenever you plan to do this hike, please check the weather forecast carefully.
Especially the strong winds up there can ruin your dreams 🙂 In our case we had to do this hike even twice to take the picture above.
If there’s already a little bit windy at the car park, you might not get the reflective shot up there. It needs to be completely windless already when you start the hike from the car park as the winds top of the mountain can be quite heavy. For photography we recommend a focal lenght of about 24 – 33mm.
We really hope you have a great time up there and as always, feel free to share your comments, impressions and thoughts in a comment down here or text us on Instagram. We’re happy to help you with any questions you might have!