The Pinnacles

Some friends of ours invited Denise and I to do an overnight hiking journey to the pinnacles in the Coromandel Peninsula, about 2 hours east of Auckland.

Thom and Lorain, at the top of the stairs convinced us to go on the hike, but the sell was not a particularly hard one. All four read about the amazing trail, and of us were eager to get started on the trip. The hike to the summit was a full days hike, about 5 hours in all. This particular area of the Coromandel was home to a thick forest of Kauri trees. After a extensive logging campaign in the early 19th century, the Kauri are now hard to find, and remains of the logging business remains in the form of dead Kauri stumps and abandoned logs.

The trail itself was the original mule trail used by the loggers to bring supplies in and out of the forest. The trail was well groomed and in most places rock was laid down to create a steady surface to tramp upon.

Above is the view of the summit from beneath.

The New Zealand Department of Conservation has a knack for making you comfortable out in the wilderness. The trail to the summit was made relatively easy with steps constructed for a sure footing.

Closer to the summit, the trial became more difficult, but was made easy with a series of bars and ladders scale.

The views from the top were awesome.

We had a 360 view over the Coromandel Peninsula, and the weather was absolutely perfect.

Denise and I both stood at the peak and safely clung to the edge of the Pinnacle.

The next morning, i decided to wake up early, and climb up to the summit and observe the sunrise from the higher vantage point. Although it was a bit cold, the view was spectacular.

The sun was fiery that morning my friends

This hike was one of my favorites here in New Zealand, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. It took some effort to hike out of the wilderness, but at least it was down hill this time. I snapped this photo of on the way out.

Cool eh?