Mt. Taranaki

I awoke in the dark, the wind was pummelling our tent to the point of it becoming airborne and the rain was drumming an intense rhythm on the sail. I checked my watch; 1 hour until we had to get up and make our way to the mountain. I prayed for a miraculous improvement, if this weather held up chances of us reaching the summit and living to tell about it would be slim. During breakfast the rain stopped, but the wind continued to howl ominously. We had to rush to get ready in time for our shuttle, and as we went to pick up the other hikers, the driver asked what our destination was for the day. When we replied that we wanted to reach the summit he gave us an unbelieving glance and mentioned that the wind would probably be worse at the summit than it was down here and. . . well, looking out the window we all saw what he was trying to say. We replied that we’d see how far we’d get, but seeing as the shuttle cost us $50 each I was determined to get as close to the safe limit as I could. We arrived at the information centre based at the foot of the mountain seconds before it opened and by then the rain had returned with a vengeance. We wrote our name in the logbook so that people would come search for us should we go missing and bought a map of the track. When the receptionist asked us if we were going to the summit, she warned us that the winds would be harsh on the summit and that we had to be very careful. Jasper suggested that maybe we should just do another track and come back another day to do the summit, but I had already made up my mind that I was going for the summit, however I could understand if Jasper didn’t want to come. We set out on the track in miserable weather, clouds were resting on the side of the mountain and the air was thick with water droplets, the wind was even more intense than before and rain was coming down in a constant stream. The track turned upward after 5 minutes and showed no signs of straightening out any time soon; instead it just got steeper and steeper. As we rounded a corner we were suddenly overlooking a valley and were fully exposed to the wind. The sheer force of it enough to make us stumble every other step, to stop my hat from adopting a career as a kite I decided to take it off and carry it in my hand. As the wind was threatening to blow us off the track I began to get serious doubts about reaching the summit, as I looked over towards Jasper I could see that he was thinking the same thing. However, I wasn't ready to give up just yet, so we pressed on. We were soon passed by one of the guys from the shuttle, he was racing up the mountain overtaking us easily. Soon after he disappeared out of sight we reached one of the many lodges that were scattered around the mountain. Welcoming the temporary respite from the biting wind we entered to have some lunch. Inside we found two guys and started talking to them. It seems they ran across the guy who overtook us and were just discussing whether or not the guy would be stupid enough to go to the summit or not. After they asked if we were going to the summit as well, we replied that we weren't sure because the wind was showing no signs of decreasing. Turns out that one of the guys was attempting to reach the summit every day for an entire year and he offered to take us up to the summit via a different route. Seeing as this was probably the only way we were going to be able to reach the summit we accepted. Just as we were about to leave a young woman stopped by the hut and after we talked to her for a while she asked if she could come with us; we were now with 5. We set off at a solid pace, climbing a large set of stairs that soon changed into a steep slope littered with large boulders. After a short while of walking over the track Danny (our unofficial guide) diverted us off the track along the side of the mountain. There was now no more track to walk over and we shuffled over loose rocks and ash trying our best to keep our footing. After we reached the other side of the mountain, now comfortably out of the wind's reach, we started to make our way upwards once more. We climbed over large boulders and back and forth over a small stream running down the side of the mountain. The slope was extremely steep and the boulders large and difficult to manoeuvre. Sometimes we had to jump from one boulder to another, after I jumped to one of these particular boulders it turned out to be more slippery than I anticipated and my feet slipped out from underneath me. Luckily I managed to grab hold of the edges before I fell off it completely; a little shaken I kept on following the others. By now their pace had become murderous and me and Jasper were slowly falling behind, we had no time to stop though every inch of our body was screaming for a little rest. Finally, after what seemed like ages, we finally stopped to rest up. Just around the corner from where we stopped was the edge of the snow and Danny wanted us to walk on it a bit so that we'd know what to do when we reached the snow filled crater. A few minutes after we set out again we ran across the man from the shuttle who passed us earlier that morning. Danny talked to him for a while, seemingly finding it hard to believe he had reached the summit before us, but the guy insisted he reached the summit and told us we could find his footprints there if we didn't believe him. All the way to the top Danny kept saying how he was sure the guy didn't reach the summit at all, he seemed very agitated for some reason. We didn't have any time to heed his agitation though as we had reached our same old murderous tempo again. The slope was getting steeper and steeper, luckily the mountain was covered in clouds so we couldn't see how far down it was. We eventually reached a ridge about a foot or two wide. As we rounded a corner we bared the full grunt of the wind once again. Danny had warned us against this, saying we had to get as close to the ground as possible to prevent the wind from blowing us off our feet and right off the mountain. Seeing as there was nothing at the side of the ridge, and the clouds meant we couldn't even see how deep the drop was but we knew it was deep enough to hurt, we were keen to follow his advice and hugged the wall and the ground. Soon we reached the snow filled crater and traversed it without much difficulty. Just a few more meters up and we finally reached the summit. The wind was worse than before but luckily the spot just below the summit was virtually wind free and we ate our lunch there. As we went back into the crater we saw some footprints leading the other way, and Danny concluded that the guy we passed earlier must have gone the wrong way and missed the summit. He couldn't keep from talking about and laughing at the guy all the way down, he seemed to really have an issue with this man for some reason. Jasper and I merely shrugged at this and continued our way down. The way down seemed to take ages and ages but finally, 7 and a half hours after we started, we reached the information centre. And who but the same man Danny couldn't stop obsessing about did we find there resting in the sun. Danny couldn't keep himself from rubbing it in the guys face. When the shuttle came to pick us up again the man asked us if he really missed the summit, seeming a bit distressed, I replied that I wasn't sure but that it might have been possible, though he probably did miss it. When we reached our hostel we were greeted by Yvonne (the receptionist) and were told that we could finally have two Dutch flags on the Egmont cake that night. The following day we noticed a sign saying they needed help in exchange for free accommodation, and since we didn't have anything planned for the following week we figured we may as well make ourselves useful while we wait for our trip to Waitomo Caves. Yvonne was a bit shocked when we asked her but said she would be glad to have us and promised that she had plenty of work for us, mostly in the garden. First, however we planned to take two days off to recover from our climb.
Two days later we started our work with a small tour through the garden and drive-way where Ray, who was also camping there and had previously worked as a gardener, gave us a quick rundown of the work that had to be done and the plants that had to be cut. We headed back to the shed and picked up the tools, as we were about to cut the first of the branches the owner's sister showed up and decided to give us another tour of the grounds and show us what to do. Her orders were completely different from Ray and Yvonne's orders, so me and Jasper began our work slightly annoyed. But, we soldiered on and 3 hours later we were done and the garden looked considerably better for it.
The following morning I awoke with a sore throat and slightly congested sinuses. After cutting down several bushes and sweeping the entire drive-way (which to me seemed absolutely pointless) the cold had reached maturity. I was feeling pretty bad by that evening and when we went into town to eat some subway (we were invited to a counter-strike tournament for that evening) I nearly fainted while ordering my sub, it was somewhere around that point that I decided I wasn't going to work the next day. Jasper slept in the dorm that night as a precaution against him getting sick as well, the following morning I told Yvonne I couldn't work and paid for the night. The next day I didn't work either and was still feeling pretty sick, I was getting worried that I wasn't going to be able to go caving. After having prepared for this trip for a month and a half I would have been really annoyed if I missed it, so cold or not I knew I was going in those caves.
The following morning we packed our stuff, said goodbye to Yvonne and Ray gave us a lift to just outside New Plymouth. We didn't have a sign because unfortunately all the cardboard had been collected earlier that day and the garbage bag we tried to convert into a sign didn't exactly work either. Despite being a bit pessimistic about our chances we managed to get to Waitomo without any difficulties at all.