Walking with Goblins

March 28, 2005

After a good night out I then had to get up early to catch the 8am shuttle out to the mountain. The drive up to North Egmont Visitor Centre was nice with Tom, our Maori driver, telling us about the mountain, park and native trees. He even said a Maori prayer for us to grant us safe passage on the mountain and a safe journey home.
Once at the visitor centre we were told the weather wasn't brilliant on the mountain so attempting the peak wasn't recommended. Myself and Anna, a German lady also staying at the Sunflower, did some shorter walks out from the visitor centre.
The best of these was the fantastic walk through the "Goblin Forest" - a wonderful dense forest where the trees are covered in lichens and the ground is carpeted with moss. It really was like some kind of fairy tale world where you really do expect to see a Goblin behind every tree!
The weather was fairly good to us and the clouds even lifted just long enough for us to take a photo of the peak.