Rangitoto

I spent the day today on Rangitoto. Rangitoto is the largest cone volcano in New Zealand (I think). It is about 30 minutes by ferry from Auckland. We almost cancelled due to rain but decided that we had been putting off the trip for so long and we just wanted to make it happen. Our defiance of the weather paid off. It rained on us while we walked to the ferry station but while we were on the way to Rangitoto, it stopped raining. We got a little bit of rain during the day, but not much. It was nice because the weather scared off most people, so the island was not very busy.

We started out hiking up to the summit of the volcano. It was slow going because we kept going off to explore small side tracks. We got to see some lava caves, which are really cool. That's basically where lava built up in a spot and the outer lava hardened and the inner lava receded, leaving caves. We walked through one that was a couple hundred feet with nothing but one flashlight and our cell phones to provide light. It was slightly creepy but nifty. It's a bit scarier because all of the lava is crumbly. You could probably knock the whole mountain away with your feet, if you really felt like spending that much time. So I was super paranoid that the caves would collapse or something. I was amazed that they have stayed in existence for so long as it is. Nobody really knows how old Rangitoto is but the estimates say it is probably about 600 years old. A pretty young volcano.

The summit of the volcano was inside a cloud at the time of our hike. Literally. It was similar to flying through a cloud in an airplane. We would look out and where you know the ocean and the city should be, all you can see is white. In a way it was anticlimactic. But I really didn't mind. I know what the Auckland skyline looks like. It was interesting to see something else. Or not really see, but it was a bizarre feeling. The crater of Rangitoto was huge. It isn't that wide (we hiked around it in about 20 minutes) but it looked very deep. It's filled with trees now so it's hard to tell exactly how far down it went but I have to guess that it was a ways.

The trek down was nice. I always like walking down. It's the easy part. We checked out some of the historical baches (pronounced batches), or holiday homes, while waiting for the ferry to take us back to Auckland. Some of them have been there for almost 100 years. Pretty crazy considering there is absolutely nothing resembling civilization on Rangitoto. We all fell asleep on the ferry back. I guess we were tired. It was a nice day though. Tomorrow, back to uni. I am officially half way through classes. We have six more weeks left plus exams. Oh, and the two-month mark was last Sunday. I forgot to mention it. I am nearly half-way through my stay here. Pretty crazy.
Peace.