Rangitoto Island

“Hello my friend” boomed the bus driver, which made my conditioned indifferent response of “Hi there” seem quite inadequate, but at least it made me forget about having run to the bus stop for the bus only to find that it arrived late. Anyway $1.80 got me to Devonport where the ferry departs and where I bought a a pie, the sine qua non of Auckland bakeries, these are the equivalent to pasties in Cornish bakeries although the fillings are somewhat different. ‘I’d like a spinach and feta pasty please’ just doesn’t sound right.

Rangitoto Island

Rangitoto island (pronounced Rangeetoetoe) is a 600 year old probably extinct volcano that rises 260 metres out of the Hauraki gulf just to the North West of Auckland city centre. It is entirely uninhabited and is a public reserve managed by the Department of Conservation (DOC). 

 (Rangitoto Island From North Head, Devonport)

Upon arrival I searched my bag for rats, possums and other such pests and after finding none I began my jaunt towards the summit. The solidified lava that the island is made of is black and very little soil has had a chance to develop on the island so everything that isn’t living or man-made is black, the paths, the ground, the walls and the beaches, if there are any, are all black. The rock is also very sharp and has many jagged edges and protrusions which provided ample grip for my walking boots but which would be excruciatingly painful for anyone walking barefoot or who happened to fall onto it. This would not belie the name of the rock ‘aa’ pronounced ‘ah-ah’ although quite gallingly this is not correct etymology for the rock. 

After most of an hours walking up the narrow and winding path I reached the crater rim and there was an undoubtedly bowl shaped crater in the middle of the island which was pretty huge and was full of flora but not, as its shape would indicate, water. This was very impressive and very worth the climb to the summit. 

 (The crater, rather too large for one photo)

(Looking towards Auckland and Devonport from the summit)

I reached the summit some hundred metres further on and was admiring the view over Auckland and North Shore when a party of noisy school children arrived... Time to head on. I headed down a never ending board walk towards the lava tunnels, these are tunnels formed by flowing lava cooling and solidifying on the outside leaving a tube which eventually emptied of lava following the eruption leaving a tunnel. The path to these tunnels took me through quite a lot of woodland with little orange arrows knocked into trees occasionally to show that you weren’t wondering aimlessly through some section of nondescript woodland somewhere on the fairly large island. The thing I found most surprising about the tunnels was the lack of lighting, lack of non stick stainless steel cages and floors to shield you from potential danger, lack of garish multicoloured signs to warn you of the dangers of the tunnels, lack hard hats to borrow, lack of gigantic steel fences with spikes on the top and lack of padlocked steel gates with ‘danger keep out’ written all over them. But that’s probably just because I’m British. I was actually surprised by how regular the arched profiles of the tunnels were above me, a Cornish miner would have been proud of these.

 (Entrance to the lava tunnel, there were no Orks in here)

(The tunnel is Hobbit size by the end)

Using the light from my camera I traversed the tunnels carefully so as not to fall onto any aa and realizing the time I decided to stroll back to the ferry to Devonport so as not to be left overnight on the uninhabited island, I caught the ferry in good time.

After a trip back with a friendly but less gregarious bus driver I was walking back to the house with the sun beginning to set and for the first time since I’ve been here I realized that it was just about slightly too cold to wear a short sleeved shirt outside and I had to put my fleece on, darn winter.