Rangitoto Island is a volcanic island in the Hauraki Gulf near Auckland, New Zealand. The 5.5 km wide island is an iconic and widely visible landmark of Auckland with its distinctive symmetrical shield volcano cone rising 260 metre (850 ft) high over the Hauraki Gulf.[1] Rangitoto is the most recent and the largest (2311 hectares) of the approximately 50 volcanoes of the Auckland Volcanic Field. It is linked by a natural causeway to the much older, non-volcanic Motutapu Island and is separated from the mainland of Auckland's North Shore by the Rangitoto Channel.
Today me and some of my friends decided to take a day trip to Rangitoto Island. I've posted a quote about it from Wikipedia to give you an idea as to what the island is all about.
We headed out late morning to hit up Food Town to get some ingredients for Peanut Butter & Jam Sandwiches to eat on the island. After that we proceeded to the ferry where we all grabbed muffins from a little coffee stand before purchasing the $25 ticket to take the ferry to Rangitoto Island. Once we got onto the island we began our trek to the summit. Part way up the mountain we ventured off into some lava caves and met another American named Kelly who happened to be staying at the same hostel we are all at. She joined us for the remainder of the trek to the summit.
The summit sported all kinds of neat stuff as the island was home to a coastal defense base during the second world war. We took a handful of photos and walked around the crater rim and then geared up to head back down the mountain.
After wrapping up at the summit we took the extremely scenic route back down the mountain which took well over twice what it did to come up. We stopped by a volcanic beach which was cool, no black sand though. The weather on the island felt remarkably like home. It switched between comfortably warm and raining at-least a dozen times. Upon our arrival back at the wharf we busted out the bread and made some mighty fine peanut butter and jam sandwiches.
While we were waiting on the pier to load the boat Mike discovered an entertaining game to play with a seagull. He just checked bread into the air and this thing could pick them out of the air like it was nothing. All this despite a very brisk wind. It provided a great deal of entertainment for all of us and everyone else waiting to load the boat.
You can check out all of my photos from Rangitoto either on Flickr or Facebook
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