CAMPING THE KIWI WAY

It was August when I set off from Ōtaki for a few nights on Mt Taranaki. This was before my campervan days, so I was booked in to The Camphouse, high on Mt Taranaki in the National Park. Although there is a sealed road to The Camphouse, like other DOC tramping huts I was booking just a bed and mattress in a bunk house. Apart from some late night hoons in the carpark I had the place mostly to myself.

I had a great view of Mt Ngāuruhoe on my first day there, though it was invisible for the rest of my stay. 

On the shoulder of a god

I feel the last of the sun’s winter warmth in the macrocarpa seat

Squint a little in the bright snow-light

Watch my black footprints soften in the snow

Listen to a drip from the roof a faint gurgle in the drainpipe

corrugated iron ticking in the sun.

I am so high up I see a storm ride from land to sea

swallowing the broad curve of coast.

I see our civilisation shrink —nothing more than a patchwork quilt

moulded to the curves and hollows of the plain,

dotted with bright beads and sequins.

I’m perched on the shoulder of a god.

Beyond, on the white plateau

another god, pale pink and mauve,rides my horizon.

I still struggle to accept that anything so large can so completely disappear. Thankfully Taranaki didn’t disappear on me.

There are several day-walks from the hut.

You must book online with DOC for this hut. Your booking gives you an unlock code, to obtain a key. There are locked boxes at the visitors’ centre below the Camphouse that hold the keys.tip: Take a torch.

If you can do without your privacy for a night or two, you get an easy access, fantastic base to explore the mountain, with spectacular views, and, if the gods are kind, views of Ruapehu and Ngāuruhoe. ◼️

More: ckw.nz/camphouse 

Images ©2024 Miriam Richardson