Mount Taranaki and Egmont National Park

A Near Perfectly Symmetrical Dormant Volcanic Cone Rising Alone From Taranaki'S Farmland, Circled By A Near Perfect Ring Of Rainforest In Egmont National Park, Used As A Stand In For Mount Fuji In Several Films And Climbed As A Serious One Day Ascent From North Egmont · New Plymouth, Taranaki

Mount Taranaki, also called Taranaki Maunga, is a near-perfectly symmetrical dormant volcanic cone rising alone to 2,518 metres from western North Island farmland, its slopes circled by a strikingly circular boundary of rainforest in Egmont National Park. The near-circular park, drawn in 1881 as a protective buffer, gives the mountain the almost cartoonish solitary-cone look that has made it a repeated stand-in for Mount Fuji in film, including The Last Samurai. For Taranaki iwi the mountain is an ancestor of deep spiritual significance, and New Zealand law now recognises the maunga's own legal personhood. Visitor centres at North Egmont and Dawson Falls give access to short rainforest walks, waterfalls and the lower slopes. Climbing to the true summit is a serious one-day ascent of eight to ten hours from North Egmont, crossing loose volcanic scree with no marked path above the bushline, attempted only in good weather and ideally with a guide. Several climbers have died from exposure after misjudging the forecast; snow and ice cover the upper cone outside summer.

Western North Island, circled by Egmont National Park around the city of New Plymouth, New Plymouth, Taranaki, New Zealand

Egmont National Park has no gate and the lower walking tracks around North Egmont and Dawson Falls are accessible at any hour, though the visitor centres themselves keep standard daytime hours, roughly 8:30am to 4:30pm, and close in severe weather. The summit route is open year round in theory but is realistically a settled-weather, daylight-only climb, typically started before 6am to be back down well before dark. DOC alerts and the mountain's own rapid cloud cover can close the upper route without notice.

Mount Taranaki and Egmont National Park on Spottos · Explore more places on Spottos