Doger 1 - Dormant Volcano 0

Our first guests to dinner at the new flat were Trish and Andrew last Friday, after which we drove with them to the bach (i.e. basic holiday hut) at Otaki. Early the next morning Roger I hit the road and followed State Highway 3 out West: to Taranaki.

We were a little intimidated on first view of Mt Taranaki. For those who haven't seen it, the single peak rises directly from the plain in a volcano shape that might have been drawn by a child. It looks really tall (2518m). The North Egmont Lodge from which the summit track begins is at 900m and its carpark was packed with the sensible types who'd set out at 9am. We set out at 11.20am.

The first leg of the tramp is up a 4WD track that climbs steadily (bar a 100m stretch, "The Puffer" at the end) to a radio transmission tower and a loo with a view. After that a climb up a rocky gully and then several long flights of steps. Already the view was magnificent and you could see the curved edge of the national park bush, where it meets the patchwork farmland.

The scree slope, having reached The Lizard

At this point you can see your route to the top and little coloured dots of people (mostly coming down in our case) against the skyline of it. This clear path is misleading because the next hour is spent scrambling up a slope of pure pumice scree. Roger's technique: all-fours bursts. My technique: duck feet steady waddle. Further up on the rocky bit a careless descender sent a sizeable boulder jumping and rolling down across our path.

Humour just about intact we reached "The Lizard" - the stretch of rocky slope up to the crater. As we climbed it got tougher but the rocks got bigger and there were some French people in front of us to overtake. Finally we did a proper bouldering course over the precarious lip and into the crater, jumping down onto snow!

The summit now very much in sight, though the clouds were coming down, we scrunched across the snow and hauled ourselves up the last rocky scree, this time enthusiatically overtaking a child of less that ten years. Time check: 3hrs20. There were only a handful of others on the top: two children and their dad and dad's friend, and two staff from Auckland airport who'd done the climb though their other colleagues had pulled out.

We spent an hour craning to see a view through the racing clouds, posing for photos and mucking about feeling pleased. The highlight of the descent was scree-skiing, and taking a slightly longer route that hugged the ridges of the mountain's lower slopes, back to the carpark. This route was also packed with wildlife: a large female weta and two tuis.

The evening light on the little lake in front of our book-a-bach (like Airbnb) cabin set a romantic glow over our al fresco dinner. The next day we went for a Valentines kayak (me) / paddle board (Roger) on the lake, disturbing all the ducks and moorhens.

On our way back to Wellington we dropped in on Trish and Andrew, who'd been canoeing on the Whanganui River, and stayed for a delicious dinner of lamb chops.

Mt Taranaki in the sunset with its little cloud