Send us a textBlissful Hiker watches the sunrise from the summit of Mount Taranaki on the first day of the year and learns that getting to the top is optional, while getting down is mandatory. In this episode:Blissful leaves Paekakariki in pouring rain to head off-trail for a side-trip to climb the stratovolcano, Taranaki, an almost cliché of a cone-shaped, snow-capped mountain. To see the sunrise, she needs to climb in the dark and is treated to a rising moon amidst a sky full of stars, including the Magellan Cloud and Southern Cross. It's easy walking through broken pumice but she's warned not to loiter because of avalanches, then it's stairs over the worst of the eroded mountain, followed by a scramble on scree, one-foot up and a half-foot back. The crater is permanently covered in icy snow, and she climbs up on the rocky edge to watch the sun rise in glowing orange.The descent is difficult on ball-bearing stones and in the heat, but she times it perfectly before the clouds return. MUSIC: Soliloquy by Bernard Rogers and Suite by Ernst Krenek as played by Alison YoungSupport the show

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