Lonely Mountain

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Wednesday we drove up to see Mount Taranaki - a lovely volcano standing by itself on the west coast. We stayed on a comparatively expensive farmstay near Hawera. Beautiful sunshine at the farm & we since it was only around 3pm we decided to pop up to the south part of the mountain & do a short walk or two. We were slightly worried whilst driving as we couldn't see the mountain, only cloud which turned into thick, low cloud as we got closer. Being British we didn't let this stop us & good thing too for as we entered the National Park we emerged into beautiful sunshine again! Most surreal! We went for a lovely circular walk around to see the Wilkies Pools & decided not to do the second short loop as we were getting peckish, so we just did the 10 min stroll to see Dawson's Falls then Julian ran back for the car whilst I waited with his camera equipment & my slightly sore foot.

After supper I had another poke at my foot as it looked a bit pusey again & I found another piece of wood in it which I managed to pull out with the help of a needle & my uncut nails & it turned out to be a similar size to the piece the doctor removed! eep! We felt I deserved more wine after this so finished off our last bottle of Pinot Noir & also started on some of the fudge! Beautiful clear night & the heavens were full of stars. Beautiful. There were also a couple of Moreporks calling to each other.

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Photos

Mist creeping in
The lpw clouds surrounding the mountain.

Forest track
Wilkies Pools Loop

Splinter #2!
This was in my foot for a week and a half! eeep!