One thing you soon notice about Auckland is it’s hills! Most of them it would seem due to volcanic activity at some point. Two the the most obvious results of this are the volcanoes of Mount Eden located inland behind the CBD and Rangitoto Island.

Mount Eden is easily reached with a short walk from the city and gives some fantastic view of the surrounding area, and it’s crater. Sadly you can no longer go into the crater, but it’s stil breath taking.

Rangitoto Island is a whole other experience. Starting with getting up first thing in the morning to be at the wharf to catch the Ferry and then having either a hours walk upto the summit, or as I chose the 5-6 hours walk around the Island where you get to see the many bays scattered around before making the climb to the summit for some spectacular views across the harbour and Auckland itself.

When coming back down theres the option for a small detour to see some lava tunnels. The days hard work on the legs walking over the lava, which wasn’t what I was expecting. I’d imagined it’d be hard, smooth and all in one piece. How wrong was I! It’s all broken up. Imagine walking on a pebbled beach for several hours! All worth it though!

After Rangitoto A couple of rest days gave time to explore the city and its many suburbs before heading out for another days walking on Waiheke Island. What started out as cold misty morning across the whole city soon turned into a fantastic summers day, so after a couple of walks I ended up at Palm Beach and gave up on the walking idea and speant the rest of the day lazing on the beach.

I Think i’m going to spend a few days on Waiheke at the end of October before I fly to Sydney, but before then it’s time to leave the city and see a bit of the North Island. So tomorrow I head for the town of Thames on the coromandel peninsula for a bit of hiking and sight seeing. After that it’ll be around the peninsula itself before heading into the Bay of Plenty and the towns of Rotarua and Taupo aswell as White Island. An offshore active volcano.