Rangitoto Island

Today I visited the volcanic island of Rangitoto, about 45 minutes on a ferry away from Downtown Auckland. It was a bit of a cloudy day, but that kind of thing doesn't bother me. First up, a bit of history...

and a photo

Rangitoto erupted from the sea around 600 years ago and is the youngest island in the Hauraki Gulf and is also the largest volcano in the Auckland volcanic field. The summit is 260 meters above sea level, but thanks to the people who made the track it only takes an hour to get to the top from the wharf... But I didn't take that road.

I took the long way round, mostly because I wanted to see as much as possible after spending $27 dollars on a return ticket. Also, the last ferry was at 4pm, so I had about 6 hours to see almost everything.

Unfortunately it isn't the best time of year to visit the island as the native trees flower in the spring/summer and the largest black back gull colony in New Zealand breed from October to January. Luckily there is plenty more to see, like...

The rare Kidney Fern (I think)

Vast swathes of 'not much'

Baches. People used to live on the edge of the island in these little cottages.

Sights from Lord of the Rings (Probably)

And a volcano.

Of course there are other things to look out for. The fan tail birds zip across the path ways, performing some quick manoeuvres that they surely do to annoy photographers.

OOH! THERE'S ONE!

Through the mangroves I came to Mckenzie Bay and Beacon Lighthouse

Then I took the road east towards the centre of the island and to the summit of the volcano. The path up the side of the volcano is actually a board walk, so it's really easy.

And here is the crater...

The volcano has been 'dormant' for a long time, so no Mount Doom scenes here.

And in the middle there, is the lighthouse.

And here is the view of Auckland city with the harbour bridge to the right.

So that was that, but volcanoes leave more than just craters. I headed back down a bit to look at some lave caves.

There was also this old building on the way down (possibly military?)

 I reached the caves, there were some Germans dithering near one of the entrances and once they had decided to go off I made my descent...

Although dark (obviously) the first cave was easy to walk through, so I went to the second cave, which was even easier, but still pretty dark.

Pictured: Dark

A nice little detour through the lava caves and I decided to make the hour or so walk back to the wharf before I ran out of time.

After a bit of time waiting for the ferry (and taking pictures of gulls and sparrows) I was on my way back to the city, tired but happy I finally did something touristy. And that was my day, a bit of a brief summary but I did have fun, even if my legs ache a bit now. I might go back and look at Motutapu island, which is pretty much joined with Rangitoto, but I'll do that another day. Peace out y'all!