Day 11 - Mt. Taranaki

Nick had a burning desire to climb this mountain, a desire shared by pretty much no one else.  We awoke early, so that he would have time to safely ascend the mountain.
The drive there was about 40 minutes, the entire mountain surrounded by a circular forest which was the park.  Weather was excellent, clear except for low clouds that barely
scraped the base of the mountain.  We dropped Nick and Ashley off to begin their hike, and went on what was supposed to be a shorter 2 hour hike... however, we had arrived
so early the visitor's center was closed and there wasn't an adequate map outside.  So of course I ended up picking a trail that was almost entirely steps, and eventually
we turned back and went around the nature trail further down.

Ashley only made it about an hour up the trail before her asthma made her turn back, and Nick proceeded alone.  We found her as we were about to leave and the three of us
headed to New Plymouth for breakfast and to get something to eat for dinner.  We returned to the cottage for a much needed nap, and got a text message from Nick about 12:20 pm
that he was headed down the mountain.  We drove to pick him up, and found him battered and sunburnt, having finally turned back near the snowline after his legs cramped.  He
seemed in good spirits though, and we returned to the cottage, and went to pick up lunch.

Our intended target had just closed their kitchen, however, and we had to head to the local town for food.  Striking out on restaurants, we ended up getting some pre-cooked
sauage that was only 66% meat (how does that work?) and were almost entirely tasteless.  Jen said they "actively made me not want food."  However, dinner was grilled lamb
and pasta which turned out wonderfully.  The owner's chocolate lab puppy came to visit, and got a little lamb fat for her trouble.  We turned in that night to strong winds,
enjoying one of our opportunities to sleep (relatively) in.