Mount Taranaki

Taranaki stands alone on a coastal plain, a near-symmetrical volcanic cone with a smaller ridge on its northwestern flank, and its outline is regular enough that people assume the photographs have been tidied. The national park around it is a circle: the boundary was drawn as a radius from the summit, so from the air the forest ends in a clean arc against dairy farmland. Three roads climb to visitor centres on the slopes, and from them tracks run through goblin forest of twisted, moss-hung trees up into tussock and scoria. The best-known walk goes to the Pouakai tarns, where a shallow pool on a boggy plateau holds a reflection of the whole cone on still mornings.

What you actually see

• The cone from the plain - the symmetrical volcano rising straight out of farmland.
• The Pouakai tarns - shallow pools that mirror the mountain on windless mornings.
• Goblin forest - twisted, moss-covered kamahi woods on the lower slopes.
• Dawson Falls - the waterfall on the southeastern side, near one of the road ends.

When to go

December to March gives the most settled weather and the least snow on the upper tracks, though the mountain makes its own cloud and can stay hidden for days at a stretch in any month. Early morning is the only reliable window for still water at the tarns. Winter turns the upper slopes into an alpine environment that needs ice axe and crampons.

Honest expectations

Taranaki is in cloud far more often than it is out, and plenty of people spend three days nearby without seeing it. The tarns walk is a long, steep climb with a great many steps, not the short stroll the reflection photos suggest, and the boardwalk there is small and crowded at sunrise. The summit route is an alpine climb and people get into serious trouble on it every year.

Nearby

New Plymouth and its coastal walkway are half an hour away, with the Taranaki surf beaches beyond.