Egmont National Park can be found on the western coast of New Zealand's North Island. Here the volcano Taranaki (or Mt Egmont as it is also known) rules supreme.Taranaki is linked by legend to the mountains of the central North Island. It is said that Taranaki carved out the bed of the Whanganui River on a tragic flight from its ancestral home to the east. Today Taranaki is still venerated and its summit is sacred to the tangata whenua of the area.The land was first formally protected in 1881 when its slopes (within a 9.6 kilometre radius of the summit) were made a forest reserve. Development of huts, tracks and roads followed. Gradually more land was added to the reserve and in 1900 it was made a national park, the second in New Zealand after its not too distant neighbour, Tongariro.