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After having to abandon a summit attempt on Taranaki due to winter conditions (new snow down to 1300m), my daughter Sarah and her boyfriend were keen to do an evening tramp on the Pouakais to see Pouakai tarn at dusk.When we left home just before 6:00pm there was still cloud over the mountain but it looked like there would be a good chance of it clearing up for the evening so off we went.  We set off into the bush at around 6:10 and made good time getting up to the hut at 7:40pm and then st …

On Friday I set out on another climb of Taranaki keen to get in another snow climb before the snow is all gone. I decided to take the Khyber pass route with the intent of getting into the bottom of crater valley and then having a snow climb directly up into the crater.  This route takes the old summit track up razor back ridge then traverses across to pass just above Humphries Castle. There was a large bank of cloud to the north west of the mountain that was closing in behind me as I climbe …

One of my favourite New Zealand shorebirds is the NZ Dotterel or tuturiwhatu. They're friendly inquisitive birds but also feisty when defending their nest or young. We only have a few locations left now on the Taranaki coastline where they can still nest and most of these sites aren't protected. The best location, where there is normally 2 or 3 pairs, is at Sandy Bay near Oanui where they are in a protected reserve with a team of dedicated locals perfoming pest control.Despite the poor weather f …

Every spring I look forward to getting in a few good snow climbs on Taranaki. This year the snow seems to be melting off much faster with a much lower snow base than past years. I've been wanting to make a climb for a few weeks but the weather or other events have always got in the way.  I was also a bit nervous about my fitness as I haven't been doing any tramping recently. On Saturday morning the mountian was clear though there was a bit of cloud around. I decided this was my opportu …

I haven't been able to get out and do much photography lately but with work easing off a bit I managed to take Friday off and decided to head to Lake Rotokare.  Lake Rotokare is a pest free sanctuary near Eltham in South Taranaki. Rotokare was a community led project and after much hard work by volunteers and the construction of a pest proof fence, it is now a thriving natural forest full of native birds that have otherwise vanished from Taranaki.A few years ago saddleback (tieke), stitchbi …