Our son decided before we left New Zealand he would give us a chance to at least climb someway up Taranaki Mountain.

 

Taranaki is a volcanic mountain and sits south west on the north island of New Zealand. On maps it’s also called Egmount National Park.  

 

Racing clouds!

On a clear day, you can leave home while there aren’t any clouds caressing the top of Taranaki.  

And by the time you’ve driven only a few miles (say about 15-25 minutes) and you’ve reached the foothills of the volcanic mountain, the mountain is already shrouded in cloud. The clouds form that quickly.  

So we took our chance!

And so parking the car at Dawson Falls tourist centre, we could count ourselves lucky, there was only a little cloud formation on the mountain top! 

Following the Wilke Pools path:

Leaving the parking area, we walked up the concrete path you see this photo below: 

 

It isn’t long before you’re in a forest.

It’s a rain forest because of the clouds and mist that generally surround the mountain.  

When you walk up the pathway from the Dawson Falls Centre, you’re climbing higher and higher up the mountain side. 

And alongside this pathway is a deep gully on your right side that contains a stream, running down its middle. You can’t see the actual stream from the pathway clearly because of the forest foliage obscures it somewhat. 

The wonder of the forest:

With each twist of the pathway you are remaindered why New Zealand was used for the setting the Harry Potter films.  

The moss covering and hanging from the twisted trunks and branches of the trees makes the whole scene look weird and scary with ferns growing in between the trees.

 I stopped every now and then to rest and enjoy what was around me and soaked in its fascinating mysterious ambience. 

Moreover:

Along the way, further up the mountain, we climbed wooden steps and walked over wooden gangways, which twisted and turned onto ever new scenes. It was like having a twist in a story, making the adventure more and more interesting. 

And then suddenly…

We came out onto an open area. A gully with no trees, only up on either side of it. 

The gully was filled with huge grey rocks and stones, with a small stream running and trickling down the middle, in between the rocks and harmoniously and smoothly over the smaller stones. 

I loved it…

So much! A lovely place to stop and rest! That we didn’t carry on up some steep metal steps on the other side of it, onwards to the Wilkie Pools. 

I scrambled over the rocks and stones taking photos from every angle I could find, that I thought would capture its dynamics.

I was surprised to see pampas grass growing so high up the mountain under such severe weather conditions. Here are some photos of the flora there.

And then also turned and took photos of the scene outwards, away from the mountain, just to show how high up we were. (The last one in the collage was actually taken later when we were going back to Dawson Fall centre). 

Sitting down peacefully, you breathe in the beauty and majestic wonder of your surroundings. 

My oil painting:

To devise this composition, I used a little artist’s licence to join both sides of the rocky gully into one scene. Hope you like it.

I know the composition seems a bit crowded and somewhat confusing at first glance, even though I did eliminate a few rocks. 

• But for all that, the mist and the mountain high up in the composition, gives the scene a dramatic touch, with it looking down the gully valley towards us. 
• What I like about the scene is the power of the sun shining out from behind the dark volcanic mountain top and the softness of the misty cloud, thus creating this dynamic enigmatic back lightening.  
• See how it subtly shines down, giving the foreground an eerie glow. Subtly darkening the mountainside somewhat subdues some of the busy details and highlights the power of the sunshine striking out from behind the mountain top. 
• We were so high up, that the blue of the sky is a deep blue. And that fact also helped to get that bright shining effect.