Wilkies Pools in the Taranaki National Park

A Walk to Wilkies Pools from Dawson Falls - January 1999 Mountain House is right in the middle of the walking areas in the Egmont park and we did three loop walks of varying lengths from the door plus another from the Plateau just up the road and another from just below on the access road into a special swamp (on duckboards). We also went over to Dawson Falls and did another three walks including one we recommend highly up to Wilkies Pools. The bush walks from Mountain House cover a variety of different forests as one works up through the tree line. Perhaps the most interesting is the Goblin forest which is primarily Kamahi which began life perched on the trunks of other trees, developing distinctive gnarled, intertwined trunks as they grew around the branches of existing trees which have now been stifled. The kamahi trunks and branches are covered in mosses, liverworts and ferns while other trees and shrubs grow perched on the kamahi forming compound trees.

It is difficult to give a proper impression of what one gains from these walks through these spectacular rain forest which surrounds Mountain House. Even the 15 minute circular Kamahi walk enables one to sample the goblin forests. We also did the longer (one hour) Patea walk followed by the Enchanted walk of a couple of hours taking us up to 1150 meters where the forest makes the transition to subalpine scrub. All the walks, even the shortest, do need good footwear - both walking boots and insect repellent are desirable. Conditions can change very quickly and Mount Egmont is not forgiving and local recommendations need to be followed for all but the shortest walks.

We spent a lot of time trying to film the local birds and there calls, the Tui and Bellbirds which contribute to the outstanding dawn chorus down to the Rifleman which is the almost as small as a Wren and the almost as small Silvereye.