Auckland: 18kms, 27C cloudy morning, sunny breaks later...humid!

Rangitoto - Traversing Lava Flows & Meeting New Birds:

As promised, we spent the day on the volcanic island of Rangitoto climbing and walking as much of the island as we could manage in 5 hours. We took a nice little boat out to the island which gave us great views of both Auckland, the container facilities (the trucks climb past our tower all night and day...ear plugs) and later the island itself. This is for my pal David who is missing his ride presently.

The hike to the top is a short 2.5 km 1,000' climb, but as with this type of volcanic cone its steep the last third! The views....very worth it! Great climb!

I met a couple of ladies from Auckland at the top who were birders and of course we got talking about birds and stuff. Apparently Greater Auckland is home to 1 million Kiwis. The number I quoted the other day was just central Auckland. Makes sense when you see the city from a distance. 

The birds on this island are quite amazing. I'll be sending some photos to John and Robert in Germany, both avid birders. Expect some of our pals in Oz might help as well. Perhaps they can figure out what these birds are. There is a Black-Back Gull colony along the way and we were appropriately dive bombed by protective parents which added to the excitement at the end of a long hot day! Here are a few shots of the feathered critters from the day...looking like a Big Year! Six species just today!

After circling the crater we (read Annemarie) decided that we would walk across the island to Islington Bay and then back to meet our boat along the Coastal Track. She did great, but I did hear some muttering a about a cold beer when we arrived back at Auckland. It was a tough walk as we climbed over a number of lava flows and the footing was loose lava stone. Very happy to have our boots with us today! Didn't meet another soul on this route which was great...very scenic, twisted path. 

The last kilometre was pretty smooth going...we'd earned that!

Needless to say, we made it and lived to tell the tale...Annemarie will sleep well tonight! Didn't miss our boat either, last boat of the day. We did find a cold beer and a bite to eat too! It all went down very well, and in a moment I'll be putting together a light meal for dinner to go with our new bottle of NZ wine...yum! 

Tomorrow we pick up our car and drive somewhere in a generally southerly direction. No real plans, but I'm sure something of interest will pop up as we get into Hobbit country (that's a hint). There were Hobbit traps all over the island today, but they were empty. Too bad.

Museum from our humble dwelling last night. Still looking forward to star gazing Seth, and the Southern Cross. I figure that our first night of riding up by Mt Cook will be the ticket! Really looking forward to that moment...hope it's clear.