After bagging this peak, you’ll never complain about climbing the office stairs again. I counted over 1600 of them (and that’s not including the ladders before you get there!)
Henry Peak is part of the Mt Taranaki Northern Circuit and offers arguably the best views of ‘Naki in the entire park. The rest of the circuit is highly recommended and can be done as a day walk if you are fit (it took me 5.5 hours return from the carpark) but is normally done as a 2 or 3 day walk.
There are other routes up to this peak, but to fully enjoy the stairway experience (go on, you know you want to!), it's best to start from the car park on Egmont Road. It's around 13 km’s return, and with it's little ups and downs on the way it's a total ascent of about 1000m all up. It took me 1.5 hours each way, but most people would probably want to allow at least twice that. Follow the signs to Kaiauai Track. There is a swing bridge, a bit of boulder hopping and a couple of short but steep scrambles involved in the first half. Ignore the warning sign telling you that the track gets rougher just after you’ve clawed your way to the top of the steepest bit - the track from here on has been upgraded and is now excellent!
Yes, I'd give this one a thumbs up.
