Auckland Adventures Week 1: Climbing Rangitoto

My goal while we're in Auckland is to do some exploring or try something new every weekend.
We started with a bang! off to Rangitoto Island just off the coast of auckland city.

We took the 7:30am ferry (because it was slightly cheaper...) which meant getting up pretty early in order to get there in time, but we made it! and we were even smiling before we got on the ferry.

Because of the low tide, the ferry dropped us at the eastern end of the island. But this actually worked out really well because it meant that we could walk up to the summit one way, and then back down the main rout to the main wharf.

There were a few other early starters on the ferry, but we spread out and had the track mostly to yourselves (there were lots of Germans around though!).

It was a really interesting track. The island is only 600 years old, and because it's volcanic there are lots of pretty barren volcanic fields surrounded by lush bush.

And the view from the summit was really fantastic, it looked out onto Auckland city and all of the surrounding islands (which we hope to explore in coming weekends!)

Drew was such a good boy, and sat in the carrier without one whinge for over 4 hours. He even slept in there for a little while.

On the way back down from the summit, we took a side rout to see the larva caves. There was a little section that you could go down and through which was really fun! I love all the tree roots and the rocks covered in moss.

We spent quite a lot of time on the island, but there are still many more walk trails to explore, so we're planning to come back again soon :)