The Last Days
After returning to Auckland, I spent my last few days in New Zealand with Bea.
On our first day, we took the ferry to Rangitoto Island and climbed to the top.
Rangitoto is a recently active volcano. It last erupted 600 years ago. The island is covered with jagged black basalt and lush green new growth.
There were great views of Auckland City at the top.
The wildlife was very used to human presence on the island. These cheeky birds were very friendly, and begged the tourists for a snack.
This one even jumped onto a woman’s hand to snack on her snickers bar.
There was a viewpoint into the old crater, now covered in vegetation. It was very difficult to capture the depth and size of the crater on a camera.
On Sunday, we drove to the Waitakeri range just west of Auckland to check out some Kauri trees and go to a black sand beach.
It rained a bit while we were looking at the Kauri trees, and lovely bright rainbow appeared.
Muriwai Beach was the site where the movie “The Piano” was filmed.
The West Coast beaches are known for their challenging surfing. It was extremely calm relative to normal when we were there.
The black sand is a remnant of the volcanic history of the area. It also has magnetic characteristics and has been investigated as a possible iron ore source.
A few hours before I traveled to the Auckland Airport, Bea and I climbed Mt. Eden, an extinct volcano near her house. There were great views of the city, again.
Mt. Eden also has a very large crater.
After coming down the mountain, we loaded my bags into the car and I headed off to the airport for a long journey home.