Many places and street names in the towns and cities we have passed through are similar. There seems to be an ANZAC street or avenue in every town. Often there is a Dixon Park or Courtney Place.
Names can be the same but the terrain these names exist on, is the difference. We have just driven down Kowhai Street in Hawera in Taranaki. I used to live on a Kowhai Street in Dunedin, but this specific kowhai has a view of Mount Taranaki. In the middle of Tranaki’s green farmland and small rural towns is the cone shaped Mount Taranaki. It looks well settled and calm, although its history suggests the opposite.
I look at this mountain and feel that if younger and much, much fitter it is possibly the one mountain I might try to climb. It looks doable. But the weather is the vicious element here, as it changes quickly from mild to brutal. So I know, being a head-down slow walker, that I would probably fail to read the weather signs and find myself in big trouble on Mount Taranaki’s slopes. 84 people to date have died attempting to climb to the summit.
I have not or am not going to attempt to climb it. Here is a photo I took the other day driving to Hawera. It was a little bit dangerous trying to navigate the traffic and take the photo, but I survived.
