I was up early this morning, waking up to a room full of people who must have turned up in the night. To be fair I was really tired last night and fell asleep early which is probably why I didn't hear them. After a quick shower and writing of my blog, I set out ready for a planned day on Rangitoto Island. What I didn't realise however was that it was Anzac Day, which meant two things. I could have saved money by doing the early bird ferry sailing over to the island being a public holiday but also the shops were all shut until the afternoon due to it. I think Anzac Day is their equivalent of Remembrance Day.
After being unable to get lunch from countdown, I ended up having to go to fix which is an expensive newsagent chain. In the end I ended up getting lunch from Subway. It was pretty important to buy lunch as Rangitoto Island doesn't have running water let alone food outlets! With a 9.15 departure from the main ferry terminal in Auckland Harbour, I had a bit of time to kill although a nice walk down the more industrial side of the harbour compared the glamorous Wynard Quay killed the time.
The ferry departed slightly late in the end in what was a glorious day. It was pretty rammed full of people, and en route to the island the ferry stopped at Devonport to pick up some more passengers. This is a basically a village on the opposite side in of the main harbour to the cbd. Whilst sailing out to Rangitoto there were some cracking views of the distinctive city skyline and out towards the large harbour bridge. The ferry journey took around 25 minutes in the end, getting dropped off on this rickety old walkway to access the island.
Said to have been formed around about 400 years ago, Rangitoto Island is the result of a long term volcanic eruption prior. Forming within the harbour through the solidification of volcanic lava, the island is now a tree infested island with a large hill visible from Auckland city. My plan for the day was to combine an interesting walk called the volcanic explorer with a series of caches someone had just happened to place along this route. Funnily enough some people still live on the island in these houses called baches which is where I found my first find. Each time one of the residents dies the houses are demolished with the goal I think to make Rangitoto a completely natural pest free island.
The island itself is not too far from the city with my GPS yesterday registering the nearest cache as just 8km from my city based hostel. My walk on the island begun by taking me along this 4wd track covered in black sands before detouring off to Flax Point to see the black gull colony. There were terrific views of the city skyline from here, slightly obscured by Devonport which is the peninsula. The terrain here was also a little precarious in places with these large volcanic rocks deposited all over the place. Despite finding a couple of caches by this point, there were a couple I thought were stupid to attempt directing me across these unstable rocks which cut my leg when attempting to walk on!
By this point it started to rain, although I got shelter under some trees. The path I was walking on was pretty safe being used by 4wd vehicles, it was just the detours that were slightly precarious as was with my next find which took me up these rocks to get a view of both the city skylines. From here I continued onto Mackenzie Bay and the lighthouse which was red and white. It was nice and sunny again by now made nicer by the sandy beach which I ended up having my lunch on.
After lunch the coastal track I had been on began to go inland which came with it a gradual climb. The path took me through these vast lava fields with the caches seeming to run on a theme of the lighthouse being where's wally! The path then went back into the woods where there was a real cluster of caches to find along here before I took the detour to reach the summit of the volcano. It was only little over 200m though so I was barely climbing a mountain!
The path then took me up this boardwalk, finding a cache en route which gave brilliant views of the islands north of the harbour. It was hard to believe I was in Auckland at this point with the such scarce development. Before long I reached another junction where I opted to take the long route to the summit so I could walk around the crater. It was pretty cool looking down but it was not like the old picture books with a pool of flowing lava, just a large hole with trees growing inside, and I mean it was like half a mile to walk round! I didn't need to worry if it erupted though as there were evacuation buildings!
I eventually reached the summit of Rangitoto, up top getting rewarded with some cracking views back towards Auckland, although getting in the right position gave me views in all directions. After a short while up top I got the dreaded GPS out of battery message which put an end to my day of caching, my spare batteries frustratingly being back at the hostel. I therefore instead headed down to the lava caves which was this cave, although more like a long tunnel formed by lava flows many years ago. There was a hole in the roof in the middle which let lots of light in. The terrain was pretty rocky getting here though, putting the first noticeable signs of wear into my new trainers!
I had originally planned to get back to the harbour along the Islington Bay Road, although now my GPS was dead I decided to head back down the summit track, taking a detour en route to do the short kidney fern walk to see the rare plants. I ended up arriving back to the harbour by around half 2 in the end, although with the return ferry not until 4 I walked round to the opposite side of the harbour for the views. When returning I gave a good read of the information boards outlining the history of Rangitoto Island before queuing up for the ferry. There were these young boys jumping off the pier into the water which I wouldn't have fancied!
Come 4 everyone had boarded the ferry to make a spot on departure. Despite my gps dying on me I still had a pretty good day on the island which if anything was interesting with all the geological and historical aspects associated with the place. Stopping off at Devonport en route, we were back to the city by half 4 although it was pretty chilly on the boat because of the wind! Straight after disembarking I took a walk over to the sky tower just to stand beneath it. I plan to do one of the three activities on it tomorrow.
Come evening I took a walk down to the harbour as far as the restaurants on the harbour edge to catch the sunset. It was pretty lively yet expensive down here, although I liked the modern approach taken to the containers which many were built in. It was even nice to see the Americas cup yachts docked in the harbour! Dinner this evening was pizza hut as the kitchen in the hostel is chaos, being on the top floor and tiny. There are 21 flights of stairs to get to it! I then headed back to the hostel through the shopping area where upon return I just relaxed, although my phone soon ran out of battery. There is one power point between 8 people in my room!
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