Mount Taranaki and Dawson Falls

We arrived at the Mt Taranaki visitor center mid afternoon during a light lain. We sought the advice of a ranger at the center and He suggested a couple of hikes that might shelter us from the approaching storm. Our plan was to stay in the “ freedom” camp site in the parking lot of the visitor center.

First hike was “Wilkies pool” with the trail running through the Goblin forest.

After exploring Wilkies Pool, a bright shiny object in a shallow pool caught my attention. I was thinking, “gold nugget?” I stripped down to my dungarees and waded into the cold water. Terri remained perched on a rock, high and dry, making sure we didn’t lose sight of our almost in hand gold nugget.

The gold nugget turned out to be nothing more than a small yellow stone😔.

We were mostly dry having incurred only a couple of sprinkles so we hiked on to Dawson Falls.

We had purchased a couple of steaks for dinner and now it was time to barbecue in the handy slide out barbecue built into Britzy. The wind had really kicked-up so I parked Britzy in the most sheltered spot I could find but we were still rocking quite a bit all night.

Nearing sunset, 3 car loads of girls-only backpackers showed up, some wearing shorts. After a while, they were off and up the mountain. Terri and I wondered, after a night of heavy wind and rain, how it was for them on the mountain.