Tramping on Rangitoto

Today we set off early to the island of Rangitoto, about 30 minutes ferry ride from the center of Auckland. The island is an extinct volcano, the largest and youngest in the Auckland volcanic field. There are no shops of any kind on the island and only a few houses here and there, presumably for people who work/look after the island. There are lots of hiking trails to choose from, so it would be impossible to do them all in one day. We decided to do the main trail that lead up to the summit lookout point and passed by a loop of lava caves.

The hike was very good. We were a little disappointed by the first section that we were forced to take due to a different drop off point from the ferry, but when we started hiking towards the lava caves, it was great! We got to go exploring and Chris was happy to be able to use his headlamp (or “torch”). The air inside the caves was so refreshing after walking in the hot, hot sun for about an hour. After the caves, we saw an awesome lookout point for the city of Auckland.

We stopped to get a photo of the great view and spent a few minutes enjoying it. Apparently the resident bees of the area didn’t like that too much and Jen ended up getting stung. There were a noticeable amount of bees along the trail but they seemed to keep to themselves, except for this one of course. It wasn’t too bad, just an annoying spot on the arm that made it impossible not to touch, which of course caused it to hurt more persistently. Ah, the dangers of the outdoors. Let’s just say that we now have afterbite witch will be traveling with us on all future hikes.

After our tango with the bees, we made it up to the summit of the island and saw some fantastic views! We stopped for some refueling and to enjoy the reward of all of our hard work hiking. The views did not disappoint. We headed back down and made our way over to the neighboring island of Motutapu. This island, although only a few meters away from Rangitoto, is completely different. We sat by the beach in the shade to relax. We watched the tide come in really quickly (you could actually see the water getting closer and closer) and waded in the super warm shallow water. The sand and warm water felt so good after 3 hours hiking.