17th August 2008: Rangitoto Island

Spent the day on Rangitoto despite rain looking like it had settled in for the day.

Half-hour ferry trip from central Auckland. The only ferry options back were after 1 hour 45 mins, or 5 hours, so we yomped up to the top of the hill (50 mins) before deciding whether to yomp straight back down in the rain and catch the boat. Nearly did that, but got distracted by the lava caves - one you could walk through for 50m and come out in daylight - so we stayed.

Cool place - it is a volcano (now probably extinct) only about 600 years old, so basically still a big pile of volcanic rocks. Now fairly well forested but still feels strange and primeval.

For the rest of the day, wandered back to the wharf via a road, then went to look around some of the landmarks on the island (baches, black-backed gull colony, kidney ferns and kowhai). Tim attempted basket-making out of some strong grass and we proved that it could be done if only we knew how.

I'll be back at some point, in a kayak, thanks to the gang at MX Telecom. Apparently in summer the rock gets hot and it's like walking through an oven, so might try to do it before the weather gets too warm.