Mount Taranaki · A Mountain That Walked Here

Mount Taranaki is an almost perfect cone of a volcano standing alone on the plain, snow on it all year; Māori say it was exiled here, that it quarrelled with two other mountains, left in the night and carved the rivers out as it went.

Between the forest and the snow line a narrow track circles the mountain, and the weather changes very fast; more visitors came after a film used it as a stand-in for another mountain.

Māori regard it as an ancestor, and reaching the summit once required permission. The mountain smokes on its own — it is still alive.

Natural Mysteries / Taranaki · New Zealand / Time immemorial