On the ferry by 9.15am thinking it would be fairly quiet however we were joined by two excited school parties. The journey took half an hour and on arrival we decided to take the opposite tracks to the day trippers who immediately yomped to the summit. This volcano only surfaced to form the island 400 years ago and was used as a coastal defence during WW2.
We instead took the coastal path, which turned out to be a 2 hour endurance trek through more lava fields, mangrove swamps and bush. We arrived at Islington Bay (or as the locals call it Issy Bay) for a well earned lunch and rest.
Just as we left this Bay, Glenn spotted a Kiwi bird running across the path, just at the same time Yvonne was looking the other way taking more photos of the Bay. Onwards to the Summit via the Lava Caves where we met up with the school kids again (bad timing!) but at least got some gen from the guide with them. After crawling through the caves by the torch on the mobile phone (I dunno we have all the gear but always leave it back at the ranch!) we pushed on towards the Summit. Spectacular views of the Gulf around Auckland and surrounding islands and at this point the sun came out ready for our trek back to the last ferry of the day.
In the evening we met our Blind date partners, Lynda and Lloyd - parents of our Kiwi skipper in our Greek Sailing trip in June which sparked this whole travelling idea. Excellent Italian meal in Ponsonby and Lynda and Lloyd were good fun telling about their travels last year across Oz and Canada. They gave us some insiders info on where to go during our North Island escapdes.
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| The tail end of the kids |
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| The not so leisurely coastal track |
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| In one of the lava caves |
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| View from the summit |
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| Lynda and Lloyd at Farina, Ponsonby |
You look like you're having an amazing time.
ReplyDeleteGid'day Kay, great you are now able to see the blog and we can keep in touch. Yep we are having a brilliant time but miss the cycling back home....x
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