Hiking Rangitoto Island Loop

I had high ambitions before we arrived in New Zealand. I imagined packing as much into this dream vacation as we could. We arrived a day before we needed to meet our tour group so that we could rest and refresh. That was Sunday. Today was Monday and we didn’t need to meet our group till 5:30 pm. We were buoyant after a full night in a comfortable bed and my plans for the day seemed pretty good after all. I had pre-purchased tickets for a ferry ride to Rangitoto Island which purported to have an excellent hiking trail.

We had figured out the public transportation on Sunday, so with no hesitation, we headed out to the familiar bus stop and caught the 38 bus north to a transfer station and then the 309 all the rest of the way into downtown. It was a bit over an hour and the trip was smooth as butter. We got off at The Civic station, and directly across the street from The Civic was Remedy Coffee, where we picked up a couple of tasty coffees, a breakfast burrito, and two bagel sandwiches.

We took it all to go (here they call it “takeaway”), and found some seats to sit and eat directly below the tower. Our plan was to eat some, and save the rest for lunch on our hike. That’s the view we had, in the photo above.

The food was out of this world and we were absolutely pleased with our accidental perfect choice of cafes. The only down side was an extraordinary amount of wind funneled between buildings that made breakfast tricky. We managed, and walked another couple blocks past shops like Luis Vuitton, Rolex, Nike, and the like, till we arrived at the waterfront. We saw an incredible Christmas tree that appeared to be built from branches of bottlebrush tree. It was GORGEOUS. It turns out this is the Pōhutukawa, otherwise known as the New Zealand Christmas Tree.

We found the ferry station without any trouble by 8:30 am, and they showed us where to get in line. Our timing had been perfect for everything all morning. In no time we were boarding.

We found space on the top level of the ferry, and reveled in the sunshine and happy vibes around us. A couple behind us in line had struck up a conversation, and so Cody and Pedro chatted the entire trip to the island.

The first humans to set foot here were Maori, when they visited in 1350 on a fishing trip. Informational signs explain that their name for this place was Te Rangi I totongia a Tamatekapua, “The day the blood of Tamatekapua was shed.” Sadly, leaving a clear hole in what could have been helpful additional information, there is no clue about how the chief’s blood was shed.

Ninety percent of the people on the ferry headed instantly to the right. I knew the trail we were on was a loop, so I nodded to Pedro and we headed to the left. We have never been people who aimed to follow the crowd.

This island has no infrastructure, and is in fact, protected. We had to clean our shoes before boarding the ferry, and were instructed not to take anything from the island and to pack out our trash. There are no shops, not even vending machines, so all food and drink had to be carried in.

A few others went the same direction as us, and I commented about this to a woman we passed. She laughed and said she had hiked the trail many times and did not like going the other direction because of the steep incline. “You get halfway up and ask yourself, ‘What have I done?’ This way, the incline is more gradual.” We were happy to discover that we had accidentally chosen well once again.

We admired the colour of the water: a resplendent aqua that seemed distinctly tropical. The smell of the sea surround us as we walked.

I had pre-purchased a return trip on the 2:30 pm ferry, and we realized we had been lollygagging at the shoreline, and all the incline of the trail was yet before us. We settled in to our stride and got serious about hiking. The landscape remained beautiful, though we were no longer near water.

We found people as we reached the base of the volcanic cone, probably meeting those that had come up from the other direction. We chose a path that had stairs. Soon enough, we were at the top.

Auckland has about 50 volcanoes! And Rangitoto is the youngest one, having erupted just 600 years ago, and watched by the Maori who lived here at that time.

Rangitoto Island hosts the mountain with the most recent volcanic explosion. This shield volcano is 850 feet high (260m) and erupted around 1500 CE. At the top, there is a trail that circles the cone. There is a flat overlook area that was crammed with people. Despite the people, we found a place to sit that was sheltered from the wind and in the shade, and that was awesome. Our lunch, still from Remedy Coffee, was outstanding.

We began heading down and were distracted right away by a side trail to visit some lava caves. For those unfamiliar with volcanic landscapes, as lava flows, it will often create caves and tubes. Imagine an enormous pile of lava, taller than you, flowing downhill, and getting a crust on the outside because it is cooler. The inside remains hot, and continues flowing, eventually emptying out the inside of the crust. Just after the lava caves, we found abandoned WWII bunkers.

Finally, we decided to get serious about completing our loop. It was getting closer to ferry time and we had no desire to be stranded. We trucked on down the hill (downhill is so much easier than uphill), and found bathrooms at the bottom while we waited for a ferry. It was an easy wait and soon we were on board for the return trip to Auckland.

Back on shore, we backtracked, and saw that the Christmas tree was halfway disassembled. I’m so glad I have a photo from when it was still whole. We took our two busses back to the hotel, and had time to freshen up before going to meet our tour group in a conference room in our hotel. While washing faces in the bathroom, we felt the sting on our faces and realized we had received some sun that day. It was intense.

As you see from the photos, the day had been partly cloudy and also not hot. We had arrived in the middle of our winter and were not thinking about protection from the sun. I felt that dread that pale-skinned people know: when there is a hint of sunburn, but we know from experience that by the time tomorrow comes, we will be nearly purple from exposure. I was so mad at myself for not protecting my skin. Pedro said he cannot even remember the last time he got a sunburn, and yet on this day he was struck by the sun as I was.

Samwise Gamgee said something like, “There ain’t nothin for it.” We had to suck it up and go on. We had purchased a 14-day Lord of the Rings tour of New Zealand, and that evening we began meeting our group for the first time.

{In real time, today is January 11th in New Zealand. We are halfway through our tour. Our guide Julie has kept us busy, busy for most of the trip, maximizing our time here. This means we are immersed in Lord of the Rings stuff and not free to create new blog posts. Please have faith that I will return to you soon and document our amazing, amazing adventures.}

Bird total: 3 more makes 6 New Zealand birds. If you can help me identify that blurry one that might or might not be like a petrel, let me know.