Windy Tops

Tag: bagged:lake dive hut

  • Trip: Dawson Falls, Waiaua Gorge and Lake Dive Loop

    6815218200_af249f9e63_z-2323791
    Stupid Tarn, Egmont National Park.

    Modern media convention is to include a picture of Stupid Tarn with any and every reference to Egmont National Park, even when Stupid Tarn has no relevance.

    Below this picture I enclose a trip report for an occasion on which I visited Egmont National Park. I did not visit Stupid Tarn. I was generally on the far side of the mountain, but I was within the boundaries of Egmont National Park. Therefore I enclose this Stupid Tarn photograph so we can all bask in its reflective alpine glory as if we’re a real part of the juggernaut of Instagram following camera wielding visitors who must have visited Stupid Tarn on this day. Also, it’ll make it clear that I’m writing about Egmont National Park, which is really little more than Stupid Tarn surrounded by a rich culturally deep mountainous diversity.

    This trip begins at Dawson Falls carpark, and probably gets no closer to Stupid Tarn than that. More accurately it begins in New Plymouth which is even further from Stupid Tarn.

    Dates: 29th – 31st December, 2018
    Location: Egmont National Park, Dawson Falls Visitor Centre.
    People: Just me.
    Huts visited: Hooker Shelter, Waiaua Gorge Hut (1 night), Lake Dive Hut (1 night), Kapuni Lodge.
    Route: Dawson Falls carpark upwards past Kapuni Lodge, then across high route to Waiaua Gorge Hut for the night. To Lake Dive Hut via lower track for another night. Then up to upper track, across and back down to Dawson Falls.
    [Photos]
    [map:https://93a12629bf06.ngrok-free.app/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/20181231-dawson-falls-waiaua-gorge-lake-dive-loop.gpx%5D

    This post is a trip report. You can find other trip reports about other places linked from the Trip Reports Page, or by browsing the Trip Reports Category.

    On Thursday morning I pulled on my right sock and immediately felt it tear around my heel. I haven’t even used this sock that many times. I guess the modern incarnation of this brand is not what it used to be. I didn’t have any spare socks, so I taped my foot. The previous night I’d finished packing. It’s been a while since getting out tramping due to some interventions of real life, but I helpfully found some two year old jelly beans and chocolate in an isolated pocket of my pack. Jelly beans and Chocolate mix really well in one’s mouth. The left sock was fine.

    (more…)

  • Trip: Lake Dive to North Egmont

    I visited Eggie between Christmas and New Year, and stayed a couple of nights on the mountain. More specifically, I started around Lake Dive and Dawson Falls on the southern side, and made my way around to North Egmont via the eastern side. If you’re after a remote wilderness experience then Egmont National Park isn’t the easiest place to get one. It’s quite small, and very few parts of it (if any) are out of reach of daywalks, especially during the long days of summer. On the other hand, I think it’s definitely worth visiting. Egmont National Park is an isolated circle, literally. It’s as if someone took a compass on a flat topographical map, and drew a circle around the centre of the mountain to define the national park. Trees and native bush outside this line have been removed, and generally converted to farm-land.

    3162781788_bc396e274f_m-3497286
    Lake Dive in front of Egmont
    and Fanthams Peak.

    Dates: 28th – 30th December, 2008
    Location: Egmont National Park, Dawson Falls to North Egmont.
    People: Just me.
    Huts visited: Lake Dive Hut (1 night), Kapuni Lodge (0 nights), Hooker Shelter (0 nights), Waingongoro Hut (0 nights), Maketawa Hut (1 night).
    Route: Lake Dive Loop from Dawson’s Falls (lower track then upper track), then around the eastern side of Egmont from Dawson Falls to Maketawa Hut on the lower track, and out via North Egmont.
    [Photos]

    This post is a trip report. You can find other trip reports about other places linked from the Trip Reports Page, or by browsing the Trip Reports Category.
    3162714028_bca194a43c_m-3029183
    Mt Egmont seen from New Plymouth,
    with the Pouakai Range to the right.

    As with most parks in New Zealand, Egmont has its own colour and character; this park is sharply defined by a solo cone-shaped volcanic mountain in the middle. There is actually a mountain range going through Mount Taranaki/Egmont, which is the consequence of a slowly moving volcanic centre of which remnants can still be seen poking out of the sea off the coast of New Plymouth, then climbing to the south into the Pouakai Range, continuing through Egmont’s discrete 2518 metre peak, and finishing at Fanthams Peak on the southern slope, which is the consequence of the most recent volcanic action. Although it’s been relatively dormant in the past few hundred years, the park is dotted all over with massive domes and bluffs, all of which are symptomatic of the mountain’s violent and continuing volcanic history.

    (more…)