When we were in Auckland, we took a Volcano tour to Rangitoto Island, which is a volcanic island but has been dormant for 600 years.
Rangitoto is Māori for 'Bloody Sky',with the name coming from the full phrase Ngā Rangi-i-totongia-a Tama-te-kapua ('The days of the bleeding of Tama-te-kapua'). The volcano erupted within the historical memory of the local Māori iwi (tribes) and there have been footprints discovered between layers of volcanic ash on the adjoining Motutapu Island (non-volcanic).
The road-truck stops just below the Rangitoto Summit, so you have to take a very short hike up for the fresh air and killer view.
This is the Rangitoto volcano crater. Scary imagining how boiling hot lava exploded from right here 500-600 years ago.. And it came in a series of eruptions and not just once!
Higher up, we reached the Rangitoto Summit and had a beautiful view of Auckland city!
Living the high thug life! Lol obviously this was in between shots but I think it'll do
What was interesting was at the Summit, there were military installations built during the World War II. They were built to support the Auckland harbour defences and to horse U.S. troops and store mines. The one at the Summit was an old observation post.
When we got back down, we found out that my BF's parents made friends with some Chinese Indonesians who were also on the trip but were unable to walk up the summit. Lol.
Before the tour ended, we were allowed to wander into the volcanic rocks!
After that, we took the ferry back to the city. It was definitely a great trip, can't say I've been to many volcanic islands!!!!
Xxx
We took the Fullers 360 Rangitoto Island Volcanic Explorer Tour. We booked our tickets online for a specific time and all we had to do was find our way to the ferry. To get to the island, we had to take a short ferry ride. We opted for the guided tour on the 4WD road-train. Our guide was a friendly man who was very knowledgeable about the island and gave us very interesting commentary the whole trip.
Tickets can be bought online or on-the-spot and is NZ$65/adult.
OTW to the port
It was a beautiful day out! I love chilly sweater weathers...
Fullers run many different types of tours. This was our ferry!
It was really sunny
We asked for which Pier our ferry was and were directed to Pier 4
Inside the ferry! It looks empty but there were actually quite a bunch of us. You can visit the island on your own if you like, but you have to make sure you catch the last ferry back which I think is at 4:30PM daily or you're in trouble because there is no accommodation on the island as nobody really stays there after dark. There are privately owned houses there but they were empty when we were there.
Our island ride!!
First row seating! You can of course hike your way to the top if you want to and are fit enough!
Volcanic rock errrrrrewhere!
The road-truck stops just below the Rangitoto Summit, so you have to take a very short hike up for the fresh air and killer view.
Higher up, we reached the Rangitoto Summit and had a beautiful view of Auckland city!
What was interesting was at the Summit, there were military installations built during the World War II. They were built to support the Auckland harbour defences and to horse U.S. troops and store mines. The one at the Summit was an old observation post.
When we got back down, we found out that my BF's parents made friends with some Chinese Indonesians who were also on the trip but were unable to walk up the summit. Lol.
Xxx
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