Rangitoto

Last weekend we decided to hike to the peak of the youngest volcanic cap in Auckland named Rangitoto. Young in volcanic history means that it erupted about 600 years ago and is now dormant. We took a ferry from Auckland to Rangitoto as it is an island off the coast. Below is a view of the city from the water.



The summit hike took us about an hour to finish. The landscape was a vastly different than we had anticipated. I imagined that a volcanic cap would be a huge slabs of hardened black molten lava. We were quite surprised to see that most of the landscape was covered in small bolder sized chunks of rock that had been spewed from the volcano eruption.


Someone was nice enough to clear a path through the boulders on this stretch of trail, but that wasn't always so. The picture below shows me standing on the trail that looks like a bed of charcoal ready to be lit for a barbecue. Not the easiest thing to walk across; however, striking a manly pose helps to overcome treacherous situations like these. All you self proclaimed men, feel free to take notes.


We did actually make it to the summit. The view was breath taking. We sat, enjoyed some snacks, and gazed at the fantastic scenery.




We even managed to have fellow hiker snap a picture of us at the summit with yet again the Sky Tower in the faint background. We had conquered Rangitoto!


We soaked in one last minute of the view from the top, then decided to check out the Lava Caves Trail about a quarter mile below the summit. As the name of the trail suggests, it leads to caves that were carved out by lava flows after the eruption. We came fully prepared with flashlights powered by semi lifeless energizer bunnies to light the way. We put down our gear, crawled into these dark anonymous caves, and tried our best to not to soil our trousers. It was awesome.

I posed for a photo in front of this one. The caves were in my opinion the highlight of the hike. Traversing through the caves was a bit challenging and a bit scary, but that's the thing that makes life so interesting isn't it?
Anyway, after the caves, we hiked for another 2 hours on a coastal track that led us back to the ferry dock. The track was difficult with much of the trail covered with the charcoals of volcanic history. Sometimes it was amazing what we saw growing amongst the rubble.


We happen to see these little fellas basking in the sun near the end of our journey. They were pretty much the only living things on the island other than those who were hiking that day.

What can I say? It was again, another excellent hike.

Extra Bits

This entry is full of some extra bits of Auckland. I was looking back at some of the picture we took from while we were just strolling through the city, and I though I would share.

Auckland is dotted by a ton of parks and monuments. We have been to a fair number of them, but we still have our work cut out for us if we want to visit all of them. To the right is Albert park which is oriented in the downtown area. We came across this one as we were heading to the Sky Tower. Below are pictures of Cornwall Park and the obelisk that adorns the peak of the extinct volcano cap in the park. The view from the top is amazing on a clear day.

One of the largest Auckland that houses the city museum is Auckland Auckland Domain. It is about 5 minutes walk from Denise's workplace, and I have been down there a several times to play soccer. We spend an afternoon exploring the domain snapping these pictures as we went.








The greenhouse area had a reflecting pool which was kind of cool.

I think the first picture we sent out to everyone was of Denise and I standing atop a hill in the Auckland Domain with the Sky Tower in the background. You can see the tower from almost any point in the city which make it good as a reference point when you get lost driving through town. We get lost pretty often, so making good use of the Sky tower as a homing beacon. Did I tell you you can go up the tower to an observation deck? You get an excellent view of the city.



The observation tower has a glass floor you can stand on. Instantly you feel you heart rate climb as you ponder whether or not the glass will break under your feet. Denise was reluctant to stand on it even though there was a disclaimer informing you that the glass was stronger than concrete. Did I mention you can jump off the top of the Sky tower? Well, this crazy fool isn't me, but I seriously considered it. It was tempting to do if you like to have the whits scared out of you.

We have also made a few friends. We had them over for dinner the other night. We also all gathered to go to the Lion Brewery tour in New Market.














The tour was pretty cool; although, we were unable to get to the actual brew house, and the packaging area was not running at the time. Oh well, the host of the tour made it more than worth while. To top that, you get to poor your own pints at the end of the tour. Awesome! The bar inside the brewery is picture on the right. It was pretty sweet with the old copper kettles in there.
The last picture are just to make everyone jealous. These are the Sunrises we have seen from our little balcony/deck. It is pretty nice to wake up to that.

The last two are the sunset in Auckland City. It looked like the Sky was on fire.

Cascade Kauri Park

Well, it may seem redundant, but it was another great day for a walk. I am taking full advantage of the New Zealand trails, and at this point I can't get enough.

I went down to Cascade Kauri Park within the Waitakere Ranges west of Auckland. Three trails begin in the park: the Auckland City Walk, Cascade Falls Track, and the Montana Heritage Track. I decided to walk the Montana Heritage Track which was a loop through the park. However, before I began the trek, I was greeted by this formidable fellow. He is the spirit of the Waitakere Ranges and oversees the forest. I wanted to take him home for our living room!




The trail started off as usual, up an incredibly steep incline; however, the direction I decided to take to start the loop was kept up extremely well. Wooden steps through the kuari groves made it slightly easier on the legs.

The backside of the trail was less rugged and harsh. It was almost to the point of being a paved running trail or something like that. That leg of the trail led me to a reservoir dam that you could walk across. I explored the base of the dam as well. It was pretty cool!

It was a bit rough on the last leg of the trail descending back to the car park. The terrain was steep and laced with exposed roots. A nightmare for weak ankled nancy boys such as myself. However, I made it through just fine, and found out that the best part walk was at the very end of the trail that connected to the Auckland City Walk I mentioned previously.



This stream began at the Cascade Falls which I was able to explore for a bit. If it wasn't as cold as it was, I would have taken a dip in the lagoon at the base of the falls. I walked the rest of the Auckland City Walk back to the car and headed home.


Another great hike!

Okura Estuary Scenic Reserve

We had to break in Denise's new boots that we picked up over the weekend. What better way to do that then to take a 3 hour tramp through Okura Estuary Scenic Reserve. We were in for about a 3 hour tramp which took us through the Okura Reserve area and then popped us out at the beach at Karepiro Bay.

We came across some of the largest trees I have seen. They are called kauri trees and are as grand in stature as the giant redwoods back in the States. The outer skin or bark of the kauri flake off in large chunks exposing colorful swatches of pink and green that contrast the grey exterior. The picture below give some scale to the size of the trees. This one was on a funny angle.




Finally, we made it to the beach after an hour and a half of tramping through the reserve! At the beach front was a small cabin that has been there since the 1850's called Dacre Cottage. There were actually people staying in the cabin for the week. I think they were there keeping up the cottage grounds and having a vacation as well.





Because it was low tide, we decided to walk back along the beach and catch up with the trail before we made it back to the car park. Just as an aside, the low tide here is a serious low tide. It looked like the tide drew out about 4 feet of water from the banks where we were walking. That is a serious amount of H2O. We're going to have to figure out if that is normal or not....




Anyway, the low tide exposed some interesting features and colors along our walk back. Check out this crazy rock...!

Hunua Falls

It was a nice day on Wednesday, so I decided to go for a day hike to break in my new pair of tramping boots. I decided to go out to the Hunua Falls Regional Park. The park is about 40 minutes southeast of Auckland. In particular, I went directly to Hunua falls to start my trek, and continued on the Massey and Cossey tracks.

The first part of the trail was kept up extremely well and was for the most part easy to hike.

The tricky bit was when the elevation changed. And about 45 minutes into the hike, the elevation changed dramatically. I thought my lungs were going to burst. The only thing that makes you feel better about ascending a steep, enduring incline, is knowing that you will eventually have to come down the other side thus giving your legs a bit of a break.

Hunua Falls was great. You can get up close and almost underneath the cascading water.

I also hiked up to the top of the falls area, but was unable to get down to the brink. This is a view looking down at the falls from a higher elevation.
It was a great hike! I spend about 5 hours wandering through the woods, and the boots broke in just fine. I am looking forward to my next hike.

Black Sand Beaches

That same weekend we visited Rotorua, we were invited to take a trip to Miruwai Beach by Denise's co-worker. All of the beaches on the west coast have black volcanic sands. The beach itself is about 40 miles long, and is actually considered a roadway for 4X4s. Not sure that the Shuttle aka 'Red Rocket' would be able to make on the sand too well, but it has crossed my mind to give it a go.

Muriwai Beach

There is a great lookout point overlooking the beach. It also looks upon a nest spot for some type of sea fairing bird. I can't remember what the name of the bird was. It's winter time here, so the nest were barren, and there were no birds to be found. However, there were beautiful views of the western coastline.

Earlier in the week, while Denise was at work making the big bucks, I went on a hike through the Waitakere Ranges. It also lies on the west coast about an hour west of Auckland. The trail was a bit messy, but it was good to get out in the wilderness. I was able to make it down onto Whatipu Beach because of low tide at that time. I was the only soul out there, and I was truly humbled by the beauty of the landscape.

By the way, if you are having trouble pronouncing the names of these place, I will assure you that you are not the only one. Most of the parks, reserve, and street names for that matter come from Moari words, and both Denise and I have a hard time pronouncing and emphasizing the correct vowel sounds. Anyway, here are some more pics to keep you interested.