If there's one place in New Zealand that I wish I'd visited loooong before I did, it's Te Papa-Kura-o-Taranaki.

The national park is unique, and if you look at it from the sky, you’d see it's a near-perfect circle surrounding the peak of Taranaki Maunga.

If you explore the national park, I recommend going to Dawson Falls, Wilkies Pools, and up to the iconic Pouakai Tarn for the shot of Taranaki Maunga reflected in the water.

You might know Te Papa-Kura-o-Taranaki and Taranaki Maunga under different names. However, Egmont National Park and Mt Taranaki (Mt Egmont if you go even further back) were renamed in 2025 and Taranaki Maunga was given it's own legal personality and protections under the law.

Together, they are the first national park and mountain in Aotearoa to have been named only in te reo with no English equivalent.

The summit of Taranaki Maunga holds great cultural significance. If you are attempting to summit Taranaki Maunga, please respect this by not standing on the very highest point, or camping, eating or toileting in the summit area.