Rangitoto

Rangitoto is one of the islands off the coast of Auckland. It is a 600 year old active volcano covered in vegetation. The oldest trees are 250 years old, which has made it a surprisingly fast transformation from a barren ocean volcano to what it is today.

We arrived at the island via ferry in the morning. To escape the small crowd we branched off the summit track to first see the lava caves, about 20 minutes from the base. They were pretty good. A couple of torches came in handy as we walked and climbed down through the caves, to the other side. The track towards the summit took us another 30 minutes or so, but well worth the effort. The view from the top is amazing. We could see back to greater Auckland on one side and Motutapu island on the other. The lookout is on the highest point of the crater rim and the crater is filled with trees, plants and birds. The crater rim track took us around the rim in about 15 minutes. We came back down a slightly different route which was a little more scenic than the tourist track.

At the base we had a quick lunch, while fending off the odd wasp and left for Kowhai Grove and the Kidney Fern walk. This took an hour or so and we made our way back to the wharf. Having another hour and a half until the next ferry, we hiked the track to Flax Point to see the Black Backed Gulls (the largest colony in New Zealand). We stopped at a restored old “bach” which was open for inspection. The walk to Flax Point took about 30 minutes one way and goes a little past the point. The water from one of the crossing was a refreshing light blue and quite nice to look at. The Black Backed Gulls were pretty big.

Our morning ferry left at 7:30am and we arrived back at Auckland around 3:00pm. I guess we walked around 10km on the island, but it would be worthwhile even for half a day to do the summit track only.

The trip was Alex’s idea, as a surprise for my birthday. It has been our first adventure of many more to come; a great start to our time in New Zealand.

Check out the photo album here.

James