Despite Phil being a zombie for a while after our early wake up call this morning, we made it to North Egmont Visitor Centre to begin climbing Mt Taranaki at 9am. Thankfully, there wasn't a cloud in the sky! We had been warned that the volcano is too dangerous to climb in bad weather.

After layering on the 50+ sun cream, we were well on our way up the first steep track towards the summit - known locally as "The Puffer". The volcano looked spectacular, albeit a long way away! After a long, steep climb on a fairly wide path, we passed the Tahurangi Lodge and began climbing up a series of wooden steps for what seemed like an age! The views were already incredible as it was such a clear day, we could even see the peaks of Tongariro from the day before yesterday. We were both feeling pretty good at this stage, thinking great, we've perhaps done about half of the climb already! If only we knew...

In fact, if we'd known what was to come, we probably would have been happy to turn around at this point, so I'm glad that we were blissfully unaware! The next section of the climb was all on a very steep scoria slope. For every step forwards, we slid back down a few more, sending a few rocks back down the slope behind us. It was ridiculous! We were trying to follow the path vaguely marked out by a series of wooden poles 20-30 metres apart, but the only way to make any progress upwards was to make wide zig zags. Every time we looked up, we couldn't believe how much further we had to go on the scoria. It seemed endless!

When we finally did make it past the scoria, the next stage was to climb 'The Lizard' - a very steep rocky section formed by a lava flow up the side of the mountain to the crater. Here, it was a matter of clambering up on all fours. I assumed this would be about 10 minutes worth, then we'd nearly be at the crater, but oh how wrong I was! It was at least 30-45 minutes of scrambling, after having spent more than half an hour struggling up the scree slopes. This was not the time to admit to myself that I'm actually scared of heights! I was clinging on to the rocks and not daring to look down, but I was determined to get to the top. I can't believe that ordinary people with no equipment or guidance are allowed to climb this thing! If the weather was anything less than perfect, it doesn't bear thinking about how difficult the climb would be. I spent half of the ascent worrying about how on earth I was going to get down again.

As we wearily scrambled over what seemed to be the final few rocks, we lowered ourselves down into the crater, which was full of snow! It was absolutely beautiful up there. Some people were having their picnics in the crater but I didn't fancy hanging around too long (the volcano isn't extinct!) It was quite difficult to haul ourselves up out of the crater - firstly because we were slipping back down in the snow and then it was yet another climb up loose rocks to the summit. Every rock I placed my foot on seemed to move and I was terrified of sending a large rock rolling back down the slopes to injure someone else ascending. I had been warned about not dislodging anything big in the guidebook, for this exact reason.

So finally, after about 3 hours, we made it to the summit! It felt like such a wonderful achievement and the views were spectacular! We could see for miles. I wasn't too tired and was so happy that I had faced my fears and persevered. Still, I wasn't exactly comfortable at the top of a volcano which is apparently long overdue an eruption!

I knew it would take a long time to get down again and felt unsure of how we would manage the descent on such challenging terrain, so we didn't stay long at the top, just long enough to take a couple of photos and admire the view. Thankfully, the descent was much more manageable than I had expected. I toboganned down the snow in the crater on my bum (elegantly, of course), used all fours to lower myself down the long rocky section, and half slid/half ran down the neverending scoria, only landing hard on my bum about 10 times!

The best part was when we finally reached the steps, that's when I really felt the euphoria of what we'd achieved, because I was no longer anxious about getting down safely. Despite headaches and Phil's tired and wobbly legs, the rest of the descent went smoothly and we were back in the car park, having stopped for a picnic, in under 6 hours.

So Tim told me I had to do a sky dive/bungee jump whilst on my travels and I shall be doing neither of those, but I claim that today's effort was my sky dive, seeing as I found it scary enough and it was 6 hours of hard slog!

We couldn't believe it when we got a text later in the day from Jo Hills to say that rescue services had been called to Taranaki four times today - we had seen none of this! Apparently a crazy French paraglider had jumped off the top and crashed in the car park; two climbers in two different parties suffered "debilitating cramps" (?!), and fire crews were called to the car park to put out a fire in the engine of a convertible!

You won't be surprised to hear that we opted for a well deserved bottle of wine and a takeaway tonight. The recommended fish and chip shop was closed (at half 9 on a Saturday night?!), so unfortunately we had to have a curry instead . Pete, I hope you're proud!