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A glorious sunrise as we made our way up towards "The Lizard"<br />
"After six<br />
attempts over<br />
more than two<br />
decades, I had<br />
finally made<br />
it to the top of<br />
Mt Taranaki in<br />
clear weather."<br />
This time it was so different. Having set out before dawn, we had enjoyed a glorious<br />
sunrise before reaching the summit mid-morning. The day was near perfect - the sky<br />
above was a cloudless deep blue, with a cool refreshing breeze.<br />
Gazing eastward from the top, the horizon was broken by the sharp point of Mt Ngauruhoe<br />
and Mt Ruapehu’s jagged ridge line. To the north, we looked down to the tiny clearing of Mt<br />
Egmont Visitors Centre some 1,500-metres below us. Then onto the shark-tooth shaped<br />
Paritutu Rock and the famous Power Station Chimney of New Plymouth.<br />
Low scattered cloud was drifting in from the south and west, but you could still make out<br />
the coastline curving its way around to the grey green of the distant South Island. Sure,<br />
it would probably be clearer mid-winter with an icy-dry southerly breeze, but that would<br />
mean ice-axes, crampons and a lot more layers. Give me a little summer haze any day.<br />
As it was it would have been zero-degrees up here at dawn and there was still ice in the<br />
small crater as we approached the final rocky crest.<br />
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