Dawson Falls

Egmont National Park, New Zealand

Back to my travels around New Zealand and away from the red dirt of central Australia.

Egmont National Park is near Stratford, which is about 30 minutes from New Plymouth on the west coast of New Zealand. The best known landmark in the National Park is the volcano Mt. Taranaki. (Trivia alert, Mt. Taranaki has been used in movies as a standin for Mt Fuji) 

Mt Taranaki was known for a long time as Mt. Egmont as that was the name the British explorer Captain James Cook gave to the volcano. He was on an expedition to map the two islands which made up New Zealand. Mapping the islands also allowed him to name the landmarks he saw, including a volcano, who he named after Earl Egmont, the First Sea Lord who promoted Cook's first voyage. Apparently when you help out an explorer you get things named after you! Taranaki is the Maori name for the volcano and that's the main name that gets used today.

This was quite amazing to see, clouds hitting the side of Mt Taranaki. They could bounce off the mountain and then swirl around again.

View of the National Park from the lookout.

The National Park is a nice area for hiking, or as it's called in New Zealand, tramping! Stairs going down to Dawson Falls.

Still going down!

Dawson Falls from the high trail, you then go down and....

The walk down to Dawson Falls is fairly easy, and well worth the effort.