A turn around Rangitoto

Rangitoto Island in Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf emerged from the sea after a series of eruptions a mere 600–700 years ago. As a result, it boasts an impressively rugged landscape of fractured black lava, which has become intermingled with the world’s largest pohutukawa forest – which just happens to be my favourite tree. Sadly, I was there at just the wrong time of year to catch it all in bloom. It must look incredible at Christmastime.

Having previously stuck to Waiheke Island as my day trip destination of choice when in Auckland, I decided to branch out this February and try something different. I took the first ferry of the day (9:15 am; NZ$30 return), landing on Rangitoto, recognisable by its distinctive cone shape, just 20 minutes later.

There are no shops on the island, so you need to take any food and water you’ll need for a day trip over with you. You can stay overnight, but most people just pop over for the day on one of the two, competing ferry providers, travelling up to the volcano’s summit to admire the views of Auckland’s cityscape back across the gulf. The island is only 5.5 km wide, so perfect for a good, healthy hike; however, if you aren’t into the physical stuff you can hop on a tractor train and let that do the hard work for you.

I opted to walk, of course, choosing to head in a clockwise direction along the coast as I find most people usually meander automatically to the right when given left and right options. If you’ve just disembarked onto a practically empty island, why follow everyone else?

I say practically empty as there are 30-some baches (a kind of mend-and-make-do style Kiwi holiday home) on the island. At their peak in the 1930s there were over 100 of these illegally built constructions, but no more were allowed after that time. I guess the ones that survived are those that have passed down through families and actually been maintained along the way.

It was an obscenely hot day, and, on an island formed of black lava with very little shade, that made for a very sweaty hike. Thank goodness I only met a couple of very svelte runners and a lone kayaker on the first half of my stroll.

There are some lovely views back across to Auckland, particularly at Mckenzie Bay, where the red and white stripes of the lighthouse contrasted beautifully with the shade of blue only a New Zealand sky can be.

I finally stumbled across another family of explorers at an otherwise deserted beach. In hindsight this is where I should have had my lunch. The advantage of going in the other direction would have been that I could have spent more time here, but with a deadline of 3.30 pm for the last ferry back, I didn’t dare to linger too long.

From the beach, the track started heading upwards, to the island’s summit. The trail is definitely hiking shoes terrain, not easy under foot. This is also where I found all of the other people.

Rangitoto was a military lookout point in World War II and evidence of its former role is still visible, with the shells of various buildings dotted about the summit and crater walk (a very swift circumnavigation, that takes all of 10 minutes). They’re not entirely aesthetically pleasing, but an interesting reminder of the island’s history.

There were some odd-looking fowl shuffling around the top, but I couldn’t hang around to find out what they were because there was also a massive wasp problem. My tip would be: don’t save your lunch for the summit.

Once you’ve muscled your way through all the folk wafting selfie sticks about, the view is spectacular, but don’t expect a quiet moment alone to enjoy it. Being a bit people-phobic, I was happy to set off back down the trail.

I had hoped to circuit all the way around to where Rangitoto meets its closest neighbour, the much older Motutapu, which has been connected by a causeway to Rangitoto since World War II, but I was worried I wouldn’t have enough time to meet my return ferry. Instead I took the alternative path and ploughed on through the heat, eventually finding a nice shady spot to wait for the ferry.

I saw a hint of the less than friendly rivalry between the two local ferry operators as I sat on deck waiting for our departure. A couple with tickets for the “other” operator tried to get on, but were unceremoniously told this was not their ferry. I wonder if they were stranded, left to snuggle up together for the night on a jagged lava flow in the middle of the Hauraki Gulf. Personally, I could think of worse things that could happen!