Pukeonaki

If you've ever been at the start of the Tongariro Crossing and as most trail walkers/runners do, looked to the hill quite close and thought "I wonder if you can get u there"... well you can.

The hill is Pukeonaki (also a previous name for Mt Taranaki which was in clear view again today) and is actually a long blown-out small volcano. The track is more of a bush bash for much of the route as DOC has long since stopped looking after it, but from the top on a fine day there are some magic views.

From the start you can make out the very old track heading slightly towards the right of the hill. This is one route I would highly recommend downloading the track to your watch... follow the old track, which is heavily overgrown, for about 600m pretty straight, then you veer to the left and quite quickly come out of the scrub into a more open gravel area, here you have two choices - you can head straight up the steep hill in front of you that shows signs of being used, or veer to the left like the route here.

Follow your way up the hill and around to the area overlooking the Tongariro Crossing start, continuing around the gravelled area through a couple of scrub bits until you have had your fill.

On the way back you will see a valley to the left, work your way over to the right side of that valley (there are lots of small walked tracks) and then make your way down to the dry stream bed at the bottom. Follow that out to an obvious track to the right which joins on to the old track and follow it to the start.