The End of Days

We’re finishing up the few days we have left in NZ (or as the Kiwi’s seem to pronounce it – “in zid”).

The ferry ride back to the North Island was uneventful and really quite smooth. We even had some sunny, warm weather in Wellington while we walked around a bit.

Our direction took us across a range of hills to the west coast of the North Island because we wanted to go by New Plymouth and Mt Egmont and perhaps do some hiking. We found a nice DOC campground for Friday night and made it to New Plymouth for Saturday night, with a great view out to the Tasman Sea, a sunset, a nearly-full moon and even a view of Mt Egmont.

Sunday we drove to Mt Egmont’s north side with the intentions of climbing the Summit Track. Unfortunately, the best views were just as we were starting off. The fog began to roll in so we really only climbed about 6-700 meters before giving up. Above that, the route became increasingly rough (Mt Egmont is an extinct volcano, so the rock is volcanic, of course), it began to shower and really sock in, so we dropped down to a lower track and after a few hours arrived back at the Visitor Centre and the van.

From there, we headed up the west coast as far as Mokau where we found a cheap campground next to a beach of fine, black sand. Not much beach walking, though, because the rain really started up in earnest. Maybe tomorrow.

Monday – we’re making our way back towards Auckland and with about 48 hours left to sightsee, find a sunny beach and get rested up for the flight back to Vancouver.

Pictures from Mt Egmont and area have been posted.

Maybe more later on depending on Internet access.