Egmont National Park

This past weekend Ross and I summited Mount Taranaki (also called Mount Egmont) with the Wellington Tramping and Mountaineering Club.  It was my second trip to the park, with my first trip occurring in November, but a first for Ross.  Egmont National Park is about a 5-hour drive from Wellington, provided that you don't hit much traffic.  

Morning view of Mt. Taranaki

We camped Friday night at the end of the East Egmont road and were treated to a cloudless night sky dominated by the Milky Way.  Saturday morning we watched the sun rise from behind the volcanoes of Tongariro National Park (Mt. Ruapehu, Mt. Ngauruhoe, and Mt. Tongariro), approximately 150 km to the east.

Sunrise behind (left to right) Mt. Tongariro, Mt. Ngauruhoe (aka Mt. Doom), and Mt. Ruapehu 

Our route for the day had us go up the East Ridge of Mt. Taranaki.  We followed a trail as far as the ski field and then headed up.  And up, and up (about 4,000' elevation gain).  There is not a lot of scree along the eastern ridge but we did end of scrambling/climbing for a good section as it got very steep.  For those of you that are climbers, Ross described it as a high Class 4/low Class 5 climb/scramble.  Ross loved it though there were a few places where I was rather uncomfortable.  Because of the steepness of the last scramble to the top, I did not get any pictures as both of my hands were occupied.  Around the time that we started scrambling upwards, the clouds started to move in, so visibility was greatly reduced.  Having climbed and hiked in the Rocky Mountains, with their propensity toward rather intense thunderstorms, this made both Ross and I a little uncomfortable but thunderstorms are a very rare occurrence in New Zealand so the group continued upwards.

Mt. Taranaki

Surveying the ground that we'd covered so far.

Ross on the climb up the Eastern Ridge

Clouds closing in below us.
Mt. Ruapehu is visible on the left.

Fanthams Peak (1966 m) on the south flank of Mt. Taranaki

 We ended up, initially, on Shark's Tooth (2510 m) in the sun above the clouds.  The East Ridge is not the path that most people take to the summit, so we had Shark's Tooth to ourselves, though we could easily see and hear the masses of hikers on the summit across the crater.  After a rest break and lunch, we scrambled down from the Shark's Tooth to the crater floor and then up to the official summit of Taranaki (2518 m).  It was a gorgeous day so there were a number of other people around but we were treated to great views through the clouds.

Looking down from Shark's Tooth into the crater

View to the north from Shark's Tooth

Mt. Taranaki crater

Ross at the Mt. Taranaki summit

Shark's Tooth from Mt. Taranaki summit

Cairn and clouds

We descended via the North Ridge which has a marked trail and is the route that most people take to the top. As such the trail was practically a highway with tons of people descending as we did.  The clouds that we had left earlier came up to meet us almost as soon as we left the crater, so there was very low visibility for the majority of our descent.  There is also a long section of scoria that had everyone falling and slipping down the mountain.  As I was sliding down it, I thanked my lucky stars that we had ascended via the East Ridge, despite complaining about it earlier (hiking up loose scoria is particularly hellish).  Once we hit it, we took the Round the Mountain track back over to the East Egmont carpark to retrieve the van.  A couple members of the group had been moving a bit slower toward the end of the hike, so we ended up driving over to the North Egmont Visitor's Center to pick them up.

Round the Mountain track

Ross on the Round the Mountain track

Ross on the Round the Mountain track

Dry stream bed along the Round the Mountain track

Evening view of Mt. Taranaki from the East Egmont carpark

All in all, it was a very nice weekend.  The scrambling pushed my boundaries but I am so glad that I did it.  It was also nice to actually see Mt. Taranaki; in November when I was in Egmont National Park we had intermittent clouds that turned into a torrential downpour.

Best view of Mt. Taranaki from November trip.

Samoa

One really great aspect of living in New Zealand is the proximity to the South Pacific.  Any trip to the South Pacific from the US is a very large undertaking.  That is not the case from New Zealand.  Ross and I recently spent almost two weeks in Samoa and it was only a 3.5 hour flight from Auckland.  I find that rather mind-boggling, having grown up with the American mindset of the South Pacific being extremely far away and expensive to get to...

Sunset our first night in Samoa

Samoa is gorgeous!  Great beaches and waterfalls, fabulous snorkeling, and really nice people.  The one drawback to the trip was that we went during the southern hemisphere summer (wet/cyclone season), so it was incredibly hot and humid though we didn't actually get as much rain as we'd been fearing.  I did not know that it was possible for the human body to sweat as much as I did for such an extended time.  It was actually kind of incredible, in a weird way.

Snorkeling by Lalomanu

Snorkeling by Lalomanu

Snorkeling by Lalomanu

We split our time in Samoa between the two main islands, Upolu and Savai'i. We flew into the capital, Apia, and spent our first night close to the ferry terminal so that we could catch the morning ferry over to Savai'i.  It rained hard enough our first night that it sounded like our hotel was sitting under a waterfall.  As a result, we didn't have the smoothest crossing over to Savai'i but it was pretty and it was one of the few cool mornings that we had during our visit.  We jumped on a public bus (quite the experience!) and travelled up to Manase, on the north coast of Savai'i, to Jane's Beach Fales, where we spent our first couple nights.

Ferry from Upolu to Savai'i

Beach at Jane's Beach Fales

We stayed in a beach fale at Jane's Beach.  Fales are the traditional Samoan architecture and consist of an oval structure with wooden posts but no real walls, thus allowing the air to flow through.  Woven coconut-leaf blinds can be lowered to provide protection from the rain and a degree of privacy.  The currents were pretty strong by Jane's Beach so I didn't really snorkel other than to make sure that my mask fit and practice breathing some (I hadn't snorkeled since a family trip to Mexico when I was in high school...) but Ross got out some and really enjoyed his first snorkeling experience in the ocean (growing up in CO, snorkeling in lakes and reservoirs is not unheard of).  We also walked down the coast to the Sale'aula lave fields.  These fields were created between 1905 and 1911 when Mt. Matavanu erupted.  One of the main attractions is the LMS Church, which had almost 2m of lava flow through the front door.  We also attempted to find the Satoalepai Turtle Sanctuary but we were both very hot and tired and eventually just decided to head back to our fale.

Our fale at Jane's Beach

LMS Church

Wood and corrugated iron impressions

LMS Church

LMS Church

Virgin's Grave

Roadside fruit and veg stand

We next moved down the east coast a bit and stayed at the Savaiian Hotel.  We did not do a whole lot here for a couple reasons.  First, the full day that we had here was Sunday and everything is closed on Sundays in Samoa (it is an incredibly religious country).  Second, we figured out that Ross is allergic to papaya and that it gives him migraines.  I took advantage of this slower day by sitting in a hammock in the shade and reading - a fabulous day in my opinion!  I just wish that Ross had been feeling better...

Savaiian Hotel view

Sunrise

A good place for a nap or a book...

Banana flower

Sunset

We ended up doing a tour along the south coast of Savai'i through the Savaiian Hotel.  We went to the fruit market, saw a siapo (decorated bark cloth) making demonstration, and saw both the Alofaaga Blowholes and the Afu-A-Au Waterfall.  Ross and I normally don't like to do tours but we had limited time on Savai'i and hadn't rented a car.  Given our schedule and what all we wanted to see, it made sense and the a/c in the car was a godsend!

Siapo cloth making demonstration

Alofaaga Blowholes

Afu-A-Au Waterfall

After finishing up the tour, we caught the ferry back over to Upolu and spent a night in Apia before continuing on to Lalomanu, at the southeastern corner of the island.  It was about a 2 hour bus ride to Lalomanu but we went across some of the interior of the island and it was gorgeous!  Lots of volcanic peaks shrouded in mists and covered in jungle.

Lalomanu is a gorgeous, white-sand beach. There was a tsunami that came through in 2009 and destroyed most of the reef system but there were still a lot of incredible fish.  Ross and I spent a couple days snorkeling by our accommodation, Taufua Beach Fales (our fav accommodation on this trip).  One of the nights that we were there, there was a fiafia (dance performance) with traditional Samoan and Polynesian dances performed by a dance group from the area.  It was really fun, though I did have to show off how uncoordinated I am when the guests were all pulled up on stage and taught some of the dances...

All of the fales that we stayed at included breakfast and dinner in the price of accommodation.  These meals were served family style, so we got to swap stories with the other guests.  There were two young German men who had about the same itinerary as Ross and I; we just kept running into them.  We were at Jane's Beach and Taufua Beach Fales with them, bumped into them on the ferry, saw them in Apia, and hung out at the airport with them as their flight back to Auckland left ~20 minutes after ours.  While staying at Taufua Beach, we ended up renting a car with them for a couple days and hit up some of the sights along the southern coast of Upolu.  We went swimming at the To Sua Ocean Trench and Togitogiga Falls, marveled at the Sopo'aga and Fuipisia Falls, took a "4WD road" out to the Agnoa Black Sand Beach, and snorkeled out to see Giant Clams in one of the marine reserves.

To Sua Ocean Trench

To Sua Ocean Trench

Sopo'aga Waterfall

Fuipisia Waterfall

Togitogiga Waterfall

Togitogiga Waterfall

Togitogiga Waterfall

Aganoa Black Sand Beach

Aganoa Black Sand Beach

Coral at the Giant Clam Sanctuary

Coral at the Giant Clam Sanctuary

Giant Clam (2-3' long)

Giant Clams

Giant Clams

Me snorkeling for scale, compared to the clams...

We eventually made it back to Apia for a day and some change of exploring before heading back to New Zealand.  For whatever reason, we always seemed to have bad luck whenever we were in Apia.  The first time we passed through, I got food poisoning.  The last couple days we were there, we had decided to spring for a room with a/c for the first time on the trip.  First our a/c broke and we were moved to another room and then the power went out in that section of Apia for a number of hours.  We did make it out to the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum, which was very cool, but Ross lost his favorite black hat (he's had it and taken it everywhere for ~12 years) when we were hiking up to see Stevenson's tomb in the Mt. Vaea Scenic Reserve.  Once we got back to Apia after that adventure, we decided to cut our losses and went to see "Hidden Figures" at the one movie theater in town.  It is amazing how much ice cream and a/c makes everything better when it is really hot and humid.

In Apia

Robert Louis Stevenson Museum

Robert Louis Stevenson Museum

Robert Louis Stevenson Museum

Robert Louis Stevenson's tomb in Mt. Vaea Scenic Reserve

Looking toward Apia

Mulivai Catholic Cathedral in Apia

All in all, we had a good time though if we were to go back we would probably rent a car for more of the trip.  The two main islands are both fairly small but there is a lot to see and the busses, though an entertaining experience, are not the most reliable or efficient way to get around the country.