Is a Mount Taranaki hike on your North Island itinerary? This near-perfect volcano, with its reflective mirror lake, is a popular day destination on North Island road trips and once you absolutely must visit.

There are so many hikes to choose from in Egmont National Park, that you’ll be spoilt for choice. So, after spending a few days camping and walking in the area, here’s a run down on our favourite Mount Taranaki Hikes and things to do nearby!

Taranaki North Island hikes
Mount Taranaki at sunrise

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Things To Know About Taranaki

Mount Taranaki is considered to be New Zealand’s version of Mount Fuji, due to sharing the same perfect shape. 

Tourists flock to Mount Taranaki (Also called Mount Egmont) to get a photo of the famous dormant volcano, either from street level or from the Mt Taranaki mirror lake, however, it’s important to know that the peak of the mountain is rarely visible for a full day. Which is why we stayed around for almost a week – and it was 3 days before we saw the peak!

If you want to see it in all its glory, our recommendation is to set aside at least 3 days, be flexible, and watch the weather forecast.

The best time to see Mount Taranaki is first thing in the morning, or near sunset.

Britz campervan and Mount Taranaki
Our britz campervan in front of Mount Taranaki

Mount Taranaki Hikes

From full day hikes and short walks, there’s a Mount Taranaki hike for every experience level.

The Goblin Forest

The Goblin Forest is the name given to the area on the Stratford side of Mount Taranaki and it encompasses several different walks.

We tied together three of the shorter tracks to create a half day walk that really gave you a feel for exactly how this forest got its name.

Spoiler… we didn’t see any goblins, but maybe you will!

Wilkies Pools

Starting at the Dawson Falls visitor centre we followed the signs towards ‘Wilkies Pools’.

The path starts off nice and steady and is mostly a boardwalk. If, like us, you’re visiting after heavy rainfall, this makes it nice and easy to avoid the mud and puddles.

As you creep further into the Goblin Forest, the reason behind the name will become more apparent; each side of the trail is lined with huge, figure-like trees covered in vivid green moss.

With streams crossing the rocky sections of track, it’s easy to imagine fairies and mythical creatures hopping around the tree roots. Or, for the rocks themselves to turn into creatures.

In sections where the walk seems quiet, or even boring, I encourage you to stop and listen. You’ll be surprised how life in the forest is.

There are so many birds in the Mount Taranaki Region, you can spend forever trying to pick out each call and song! There truly is nothing I love more than being fully submerged in nature, even when the weather isn’t on our side!

After about 30 minutes of the steady incline, you’ll reach the mystical Wilkies Pools but not before crossing a small suspension bridge!

The bridget offers a great vantage point up towards the pools, and on a clear day you can see out across the national park.

In summer the Wilkies Pools are an ideal spot for a swim but we weren’t tempted. Not only because it was bitterly cold but also because the recent rain had made them look more like a waterfall than a relaxing place for a paddle.

If you decide to brave a swim, you’ll have to let us know!

Waingongoro Hut track

From the bridget, there are two options.

Continue on the Wilkies Pools track to loop back towards the information centre, creating a 1.5-hour return walk or follow the signs for Waingongoro Hut. We, of course, chose to continue to Waingongoro Hut.

This is where the track gets interesting with a lot more stream crossings, rock scrambling and a steeper incline as you start to climb out of the forest.

At one point we had to rock hop across a mini waterfall. I felt like Little Red Riding Hood on her way to grandmas!

On the way to the Waingongoro Hut, look out for the sign for ‘swing bridge’, which will lead you down a side track. If you follow it for 5 minutes, you’ll be standing at the edge of Egmont National Park’s tallest swing bridge.

At 24m high, this swing bridge gives you a good birds-eye view down on the tree canopy and is worth the mini detour.

Once back on the Waingongoro Hut track, it isn’t long before the trees open up and you’ll find the hut.

I was a little disappointed by the views at the hut, or more accurately the fact that there wasn’t any but even so, the walk so far had been great and Waingongoro Hut was a nice spot to stop for some lunch.

We stopped at the hut for a while hoping the rain would stop but when it showed no signs of doing so, we headed back down the track, past the swing bridge sign until we came to the next fork in the road.

Here we could either return back past Wilkies Pools or continue back to the road via the ridge track and end up at Dawson Falls

Dawson Falls

Not wanting to repeat the same route, we opted to head for Dawson Falls and we highly recommend you do too!

The ridge track wasn’t as nice as the Wilkies Pools track but that was purely because there were a lot of flooded steps and muddy puddles to hop – not surprising given it hadn’t stopped raining all day.

The track eventually leads back to the main road to the information centre but the green DOC signs made it easy to pick up the track again.

 It wasn’t long before we could hear the roar of Dawson calling us down into the depths of the valley. If there’s one thing rain is good for, it’s making sure the waterfalls are looking their best!

The lookout point at the top isn’t that great if we’re honest. It’s quite overgrown (as nature intended) and sits at a funny angle from the falls. 

To get a better view we highly recommend taking the steep steps down to the plunge pools. Again, probably a great place to swim in summer, but while we were there even the mist coming off the falls was too cold for me!

This walk through Goblin Forest was roughly a 3-hour return walk, not including all the times we stopped to get photos or just admire the surroundings.

Another thing we really liked about this part of Mount Taranaki was the fact they allow you to free camp in the information centre car park. This means you can park up overnight and get a head start before the other tourists arrive!

The visitor centre is where the Mount Taranaki summit track starts too. Remember to pop in and speak to a member of staff beforehand, just to check for any weather warnings or track conditions you might need to know about!

Our Favourite Mount Taranaki Hike

Finding the Mount Taranaki Mirror Lake

As I mentioned earlier, Mount Taranaki’s perfect reflection is the most iconic image of this famous volcano. And we know exactly where to find it.

You’ll need to be prepared for a bit of a hike though! While it isn’t the longest hike we’ve ever done, it is without a doubt the hardest.

Why? Because it’s made up entirely of stairs. It can also get pretty monotonous as you don’t get any views until you’re almost at the top.

We’ve since hiked to Kaikoura’s Mount Fyffe Hut which I’d argue is harder than this one!

We broke the boredom with bird watching – there’s plenty of Tuí nesting in the area – and reliving our childhood with games of I-Spy.

To find the Mount Taranaki Mirror Lakes, you’ll need to start at The Mangorei track that leads to Pouakai Hut.

It’s approx. 3 hours return if you don’t account for photo + rest stops.

That’s 1.5hours and almost 1188m of stairs both ways!

It’s a leg burner that’s for sure but the views at the top are worth it. Once you reach the hut all you need to do is continue for another 15 minutes and you’ll reach the mirror lake.

I wish I could say they were a flat 15 minutes but unfortunately, there’s still a little bit of uphill to go.

We weren’t fortunate enough to get the famous views on our hike but we already knew that would be the case when we set off. We did manage to get a teeny tiny sliver of the town below us, but it didn’t last long enough to get a photo.

With the weather being so dismal though, it meant we got to see the mountainscape in a whole new light.

You don’t see many moody photos from this walk, just those of the famous reflection, but when we looked around there’s actually a lot going on up there.

So many different shades of grass against the backdrop of thick fog, it felt like a whole new world. I’m not disappointed that we couldn’t see beyond a few metres.

The walk down was perhaps even harder than the walk-up. The first part as you leave the hut wasn’t very sheltered so we were open to the elements… which decided to hammer us with hail. Yay.

Mount Taranaki is behind all that fog… I promise!

Other Things To Do Near Mt Taranaki

Elephant Rock The 3 Sisters

Okay so small confession, this little attraction actually requires you to leave Mount Taranaki but it’s only 1 hour away and well worth a visit.

Elephant Rock and the 3 sisters are rock formations that sit on the beach near Tongaporutu and they look exactly how you’ve imagined them; one like an elephant, and one like the famous 3 sisters in Australia.

At low tide, you can walk right up to them and through the arches formed in some of the other formations.

At high tide there is a brilliant high vantage point from the cliffs, accessible by a short drive and 2-minute walk down a public footpath through some fields.

The original Elephant Rock recently lost its trunk but Dec spotted another formation that looks very close to the original so who knows, in a few more years it might have been naturally sculpted and the beach will have its Nelly back.

These rock formations are only accessible at low tide, which is different on a daily basis.

You can check the tide times here but luckily the car park here is also a free campsite so if the tide is low early in the morning you can camp and get there before anyone else

An elephant shaped rock on a black sand beach

Camping At Mount Taranaki

There are quite a few free camps around the base of Mount Taranaki, including the Pukeiti Garden car park which is just a short drive away from the start of Mangorei Track and the information centre car park I mentioned previously.

However, if you’re looking for a powered site, the closest to Taranaki is Stratford Motels & Holiday Park.

We found this site to have amazing facilities (hot showers!) and while it isn’t close enough to park up and do some walks from here, it’s close enough to feel in the middle of it all still and the staff were great at answering some of my Q’s about the area too!

Another option for accommodation near Mount Taranaki is New Plymouth. Use the map below to see what options are available for your travel dates!

 

There are quite a few other walks to do in the area, including the Mount Taranaki Summit Walk but if you’re short on time or there in winter like we were, this is an amazing way to spend 3 days at Mount Taranaki and get a taste for the area. We can’t wait to go back and see what it’s like in summer without its snow cap!

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We’re Dec + Leah! Full time travellers and van lifers since 2017. Helping you navigate life on the road & encouraging you to stray off the beaten path with road trip, pet friendly and budget travel advice for couples.

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