Rangitoto

Today we crossed another item off our "To Do in NZ" list – we climbed Rangitoto.

When a volcano erupted in Hauraki Gulf 600 years ago, Rangitoto was born. In Maori, Rangitoto means Bloody Sky which I guess is what they saw when it exploded onto the seascape. With it's distinctive symmetrical shape, Rangitoto is one of Auckland and NZ's most recognisable landmarks.

Catching the 7am ferry was a bit of a shock for our body clocks which have been set on holiday mode for a week or more, but we managed. In fact it was good to get an early start as the wind had picked up significantly by the time we were heading home at 12.45pm.

The loose volcanic rocks were a bit of a hazard for some of us. After one child tripped over a rock, another one proceeded to tell us how the first one could have avoided such tragedy. Then splendidly re-enacted the fall of the first child! The result was some grazed knees but, thankfully, no broken bones.

It took us about 90 minutes to climb to the summit. Before we embarked on our tramp, I did wonder if volcanoes had summits as the "top" is actually a crater – but they do. Unlike the crater of Maungawhau which is grass, the Rangitoto crater was thick with vegetation. As the ground base is volcanic rock, it can apparently get very hot on the climb but we were lucky that it was an overcast day and didn't have to worry about that.

On the descend we checked out some lava caves which were quite interesting apart from the Asian family who were following [too] close behind.