Stratford Plateau on Mt Taranaki – Day 53

So today I am pretty pumped because we are going to Mt Taranaki. The weather looks good we checked it for about a week. We have our hike ready we have planned exactly where we want to go and what we want to do – nothing can stop us today. Nothing, I say, nothing!

So I spent about the last three days trying to pick the most perfect day to go on a hike on Mt Taranaki I just can’t wait. this mountain looks gorgeous. As we’re making our way up the mountain, we get past the tree line that is when the wind hits us. Up here it is a totally different story to what we were having in Stratford this morning. So we decided to take it easy and go to the really small track which is the Stratford Plateau Track which basically is half not even a third way up the mountain and you have a great lookout over the whole stratford area then also the mountain in the background. However, as you can see the mountain is covered in clouds so meh. But we know from here that there’s a like literally a 30-second walk to a viewing platform. If we can just go and have a look at this platform and see the view very quickly then we can sort of go back to the campervan and reassess the situation because literally on the viewing platform snow is starting to pelt at our face in high winds which is very uncomfortable. We have our buffs all around our faces our hats pulled down and we’re like oh my God. but in a way it’s quite funny being in that sort of crazy weather it’s like when you’re a kid on the playground and there’s massive winds and you just get your coat put it around your head and you make a parachute for yourself. it felt like that. It’s like oh my God this is crazy like how can wind get to this speed? We are literally battered by the wind and the hail and the snow and yeah, that hike’s not happening. We come to the conclusion we should probably leave Mt Taranaki for the day. Mountain safety is not something to play around with right. If you don’t have the proper gear, if you have not notified anyone where you’re going, if you don’t have a correct map and compass of the area don’t adventure yourself in the mountain where you have no visibility, it’s hailing and you’re just not prepared for the conditions. It just looks like we, it was beautiful weather and turning really bad so it doesn’t look like it’s actually a safe thing to do for us. We play some board games, we bought an $8 game of travel Cludo. I’ve only played Cludo once in my life so when Robin is saying woo I won at Cludo, I’m so amazing. No, you’re not amazing, robin. You just play against people who have no idea what they’re doing. So you’re probably shit. Probably. Most definitely you’re probably shit.

I’m kind of upset. I’m kind of pissed. I wish I had a warm cup of tea to make me feel better. It’s just hot water.